10 January 2010

Sunday at St Thomas'

Just back from a lovely service at St Thomas' Episcopal Church in Corstorphine celebrating the refurbishment of its sanctuary and church halls. The halls are well used by a range of church and community organisations including the uniformed organisations and youth clubs. The hope is that the new facilities will be able to be used by many more local residents and businesses every week as a result of the works. A lot of the work was funded by the congregation but support was also made available from the City of Edinburgh Council, Youthlink and an organisation called WREN which recycles funds from the landfill tax. I was delighted to be able to join the congregation and its friends to celebrate a new phase in the Church's history and have been very happy over the past year to lobby successfully for assistance for the project. As a local MSP I am always impressed by the amount of good work local churches of all denominations do in the constituency. I know without doubt that our communities rely on their facilities and would be a lot worse off without them.

2 January 2010

Back to the office

Back to the office this week after a most enjoyable Christmas break. With the snow still on the ground and more forecast there has been a lot of concern for older people who are unable to get out and about to get food and medicine. This was one of the issues highlighted at First Minister's Questions today, as well as school closures. I know that many people in the constituency and further afield are looking out for elderly neighbours but I don't think we can rely on this being the case. I am especially concerned for those older people who are not known to social services because they are usually able to cope alone. I contacted the Council yesterday to ask what is being done to ensure that anyone who needs help, especially the elderly, receive it in these extreme conditions. I know that many day centre staff are being deployed on home visits to ensure that people are able to get hot meals, shopping and so on. I also spoke to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Nicola Sturgeon, informally after FMQs to ask what is being done to make sure that people who are not known to social services but who may need assistance are being identified. She said that she would look into this and contact my office with further details.

There is an Education and Lifelong Learning Question Time this afternoon - another opportunity to hold the Government to account on its education promises so it's back to the Chamber for me!

2 January 2010

Happy New Year

I'd like to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year. I spent the Christmas break enjoying time with the family - we even managed to go sledging on Corstorphine Hill, something I can't remember doing since I was about 13!