The Edinburgh Reporter September 2022

9
Cyclists: watch
this space
Funds for a multicultural celebration
A NEW EVENTS fund has
been set up marking the 75th
anniversary of the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe.
This is to help multicultural
organisations from Edinburgh
and elsewhere with grants to
bring their own special events
to life in their communities
this September.
The African Caribbean
Society of Scotland (ACSS) is
based in the capital and
provides a platform to
celebrate African and
Caribbean culture while also
offering safe spaces and
support for mental health,
education and access to
financial sustainability.
The organisation will host
Afro Vision, a celebration of
African and Caribbean music
at the Fruitmarket Gallery on
Sunday 25 September.
The Old Town celebration
will involve Edinburgh
residents from a range of
cultural backgrounds.
Launched by Black and
Ethnic Minority Infrastructure
in Scotland (BEMIS Scotland),
Scotland on Tour and the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the
£50,000 funding pot was open
to groups led by minority
ethnic communities, musicians
and singers to stage exciting
and diverse concerts,
celebrations and performance
opportunities for people in
their local areas.
Eight bodies from all over
Scotland will benefit from the
Multicultural Celebration of
the 75th Anniversary of the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Fund putting on community
events over the last two
weekends in September,
featuring music, dance and
storytelling.
Student Ben
is on the ball
New ambassador for cancer foundation
By OLIVIA THOMAS
UNIVERSITY OF Edinburgh
student Ben Isbell (22) has signed
up as university ambassador for
The Oddballs Foundation
beginning in the autumn term. In
his role he will encourage men to
check themselves for signs of
testicular cancer, the most
prominent form of disease in
men aged 15 to 49.
Isbell is originally from
Tunbridge Wells and is
studying Philosophy and
Politics in Edinburgh. He is a
keen rugby and football player
and was recruited by an existing
ambassador. The role will involve
visit schools, universities and
workplaces delivering talks in an
effort to remove the stigma and
embarrassment around the
disease. The charity places Check
Yourself guides in public spaces
and in workplaces.
Ben said: “Getting the
opportunity to make a real
difference for such an important
cause was my key motivator for
getting involved as an ambassador.
The conversation around testicular
cancer should not be shied away
from. I want to help raise
awareness and remove the stigma
associated with talking about it,
and in doing so help people in
Edinburgh. The speed that the
university ambassador programme
at The OddBalls Foundation is
growing makes it an exciting
initiative to be involved in and I
look forward to getting to know
the other ambassadors well.”
If you would like Ben to come and
talk to you and your colleagues
then please send an email to:
hello@TheOddBalls
Foundation.com
By KIRSTY LEWIN
EVERY TIME I OPEN the cycle hangar at
the end of my street, passers-by ask me
about it. Tourists exclaim what a great idea
it is. Locals ask how they can get a space in
one. Some have contacted their
councillors, others are on long waiting lists.
Some say, with a raised eyebrow, that it’s
unfair that you can park your car for free on
the streets of Portobello, but you have to
pay for storing a bike.
I pay £6 a month for a guaranteed space
in the hangar and it’s changed my life. I
have an electric bike which weighs 26 kilos.
I live in a top flat and have severe
osteoarthritis in my knee. I cannot carry the
bike up to my flat. When my knee is flaring,
I use my bike as my mobility aid. I cycle
everywhere as I don’t have access to a car.
SHORT ON SPACE
Our tenement has a narrow stair. Before I
had the hangar space, I kept my bike in the
stairwell. When I went out on my bike, I
never knew whether I would have a space
to return to as there were more bikes than
the space available. Bike storage in
tenements often results in neighbour
disputes, problems accessing the back
green, and may incur warnings from the
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Bikes in
stairs are also regularly stolen.
My cycle insurance company covers the
hangar use as it’s within the specified
distance from my flat. But what about
everybody else in Edinburgh that needs a
space and hasn’t got one? There are
swathes of the city with no cycle hangars at
all. Aside from fear of traffic and the lack of
safe cycling infrastructure, lack of storage is
a significant barrier to people who want to
cycle. The problem is made worse for many
disabled people who want to cycle
adaptive cycles including trikes. These
cycles need more space than provided in
the current hangars.
If the council is serious about enabling
everybody to cycle who wants to, it must
prioritise low-cost secure convenient cycle
storage, particularly in tenement areas,
and storage solutions provided for
disabled people who use, or would like to
use, adaptive cycles. Equitable financing
also needs to be addressed. It shouldn’t be
cheaper to park a car on the street than a
cycle. And hangars should never be on
pavements. There is enough street space in
Edinburgh to reallocate existing car
parking spaces to cycle storage.