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One of the most popular episodes of the Porty Podcast was back in 2018 when the Edinburgh Tool Library arrived in Portobello. The library and workshop moved into the same building as Tribe Porty – both share the same kind of ethos. This month, it celebrates its 10th anniversary which makes it the perfect time to find out how it has thrived, despite the pandemic, and added new services all around the idea of make do and mend.

https://edinburghtoollibrary.org.uk/

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If you go along to Porty Community Fridge this morning, you’ll see something a bit different. Today sees the launch of what they’re calling the RepairMongery. The hope is that people will book a slot where they can bring along those household goods that have stopped working for some reason but have not yet been thrown into the recycle bin. On hand will be experts who will decide whether they’re worth repairing. In this episode, we find out from the founders of the project what they have in mind.

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Earlier this week, the programme for the Portobello Book Festival was launched. Throughout the first weekend in October, the library will be buzzing with writers launching new books, talking about them, discussing the work of others and laying bare what it means to be an author. This is the 16th Festival and is probably alone in the UK for being free. Tickets will be available from Monday but to get a feel for what will be on offer, David Calder spoke to Joanne Baird and her daughter Grace, now both trustees of this popular event.

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Dementia affects around 90,000 people in Scotland. Across the UK, the total is currently around a million. Those figures however are expected to increase by 50% by 2050. That will put an ever increasing strain on the services which offer day care and other support services. One of those in Portobello is The Cottage in Milton Road, run by Life Care Edinburgh. David Calder went to find out what it provides for those living with dementia.

For more information click here: https://tinyurl.com/5mveehmv

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St Mark’s Episcopal Church in the High Street has received some good news. The National Churches Trust has awarded it a £100,000 grant to help preserve this historic Georgian building. The church first started fund raising about five years ago but that was hit by lockdown and other issues which delayed the whole project. But when David Calder met the Rev Canon Dr Sophia Marriage, Rector of St Mark's, she told him of her delight that things were finally moving forward again.

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Here at The Porty Podcast, we were delighted to learn that a group of primary school children at Towerbank had come top in their age-group in a programme called ‘Academy 9’. The aim was to get schools across Scotland involved in real life science and technology projects - in this case the dualling of the A9 north of Perth. The pupils at Towerbank chose to focus on the environment and sustainability aspects of this major undertaking. David Calder went along to meet the winning team.

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It almost seems hard to believe but Portobello Town Hall has been running – and more important running successfully – for a year now. And it’s five years, almost to the day, when Miss Morag from Lothian Dance Academy found the doors barred when she was getting ready to put on its Annual Show. Thankfully, it did go ahead despite concerns about the state of the building. And within hours a petition had been launched to save the building for the community. It therefore seems appropriate that Morag Phillips, the same Miss Morag but now a trustee of the hall, should come to speak to David Calder about Portobello Town Hall’s successful first year in community control:

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If you were looking at Facebook earlier in the week, you may have seen the lovely photograph of a beaming Morag Donaldson. She’s just been presented with an award recognising all the voluntary work she’s done in Portobello in recent years, most recently in connection with Bellfield. She came in to record an episode of the podcast with David Calder.