Hello and welcome to Porty News, which at the moment is an experiment as part of the Porty Podcast. Our aim – and perhaps that of anyone who wants to help out occasionally – is to bring you brief snippets of news from Portobello, Joppa and the surrounding areas as well as useful information from organisations like City of Edinburgh Council, the police and other such bodies.
Let’s start with news of a scam – and quite a nasty one at that. Several local people have received very credible looking emails claiming to be from the NHS and giving them details of their supposed appointment for a Co-Vid 19 jag. As I say, it looks pretty legit – until you’re asked for your credit card details right at the end. That should immediately ring alarm bells! Indeed, the very fact you got this invite as an email and not a letter should have been the give-away. According to the NHS, they will only contact you by post.
Now, you remember, there were far too many people out on the Prom and Beach last weekend. I don’t know about you but I didn’t want to mingle and stayed at home. But it was enough for Police Scotland to warn that they’ll be stepping up patrols here this coming weekend, along with places like the Pentlands and Cramond. The rules, which are supposed to apply to all of us, say we’re are only allowed to leave our homes to go to work, to take some exercise to go shopping. There’s been a lot of online comment here, whenever the weather’s good which actually doesn’t look like being the case over the next few days, about roads leading to the beach being clogged by 4-by-4s, filled with maw, pa and the weans, folk who’ve come down from other parts of the city for a wee dauner along Porty sands. That’s not following the rules boys and girls.
Finally, tomorrow’s episode of the podcast in its usual form will be an interview with Justin Kendrick looking forward to a future when life returns to some form of normality, whatever that turns out to be – asking how we can build on the community spirit that’s been helping us through the pandemic – and asking what sort of community we want Portobello and Joppa to be and how we get that community involved in thinking about how to achieve all of that.
That will be posted wherever you find your podcasts, as well as assorted pages on Facebook and Twitter first thing tomorrow morning.