Welcome to this week’s Peeblean.
⛅ According to the Met Office light rain is forecast across Sunday with gusts of up to 22mph from the WSW, the chance of rain reduces below 5% on Monday with sunny intervals predicted. Temperatures are on the rise from Tuesday - Thursday with 23° forecast, dipping on Friday and into next weekend.
🚸 SBC schools have in-service days for staff next Monday and Tuesday (17 and 18 August) with pupils returning on Wednesday 19 August.
🎵 Innerleithen Music Festival opens on Friday and runs across next weekend (14-16 August) in various locations across the town. Scroll down for the full listing. At the end of August is Stobo Art & Music Festival (27-30 August) which features gigs, art workshops, creative writing sessions, poetry and a women’s wellbeing day.
👣 New interpretative signage has been installed along the route of Eddleston Water Path between Eddleston and Peebles. Created by Go Tweed Valley following a commission by Scottish Borders Council, the signage sees a mix of interpretive lecterns and smaller informational signs. Water is a common theme, with several of the lecterns referencing the Eddleston Water Project – a pioneering river restoration initiative that has turned the entire catchment into a living laboratory. The design is by Caddon Creative based in Innerleithen.
☕ A new coffee shop - Henry’s - is on the cards for the Northgate after a change of use application was approved by the council this week. Douglas and Siobhan Aitken Healey will be running the new business in the shop which sits between Accommodate Rural and the Cross Keys and was briefly a nail bar.
🏛️ Sunday 9 August is the last day to respond to the St Ronan’s Wells community asset transfer request. You don’t need to live in Innerleithen to comment on the proposal and responses can be emailed or completed online. Click here for the details.
🚲 The risk of bike theft in the Tweed Valley was the focus of a meeting this week hosted by local MSP Calum Kerr. Police, businesses, tourism bodies and council representatives met at Glentress to discuss crime prevention and good practice. Improving access to secure bike storage was identified as a priority for accommodation providers. Local riders are encouraged to consider adding additional levels of security when storing bikes at home as well as bike marking and registration on the national bike database.
🚫 Road closures:
Road closures to enable BT works are planned for 17 August and will affect Cross Road, Cross Street and Montgomery Place.
Wall repair works will require a road closure of the D7/1 at Mowbrays Slap, West Linton from 11 August to 1 September.
🎨 There are two art exhibitions opening this week: Evelyn McEwan at Dawyck Botanic Garden and Caroline Convey at the Eastgate Theatre studio. See events listing below for dates and details.
🎞️ Christopher Nolan film The Odyssey (12a) is coming to the Eastgate Theatre this month, screening on Sunday 16 August (1pm), Monday 17 August (12 noon) and Wednesday 19 August, 1pm and 7.30pm. Running time is 180 minutes.
PEOPLE NEWS
A cracking front page this week in the Peeblesshire News, featuring Alexander Welsh who alerted residents to a fire and helped them get to safety. Alex is one of the Peebles HS pupils currently fundraising for Vine Trust projects in Tanzania. The group fundraising page is here and Alex’s personal page is here.
The paper also features Michelle Sterricks who was recognised as Volunteer of the Week at the Commonwealth Games.
Congratulations to Gerry Crowe and Colin Fraser who won the Peebles Gents Senior Open on Thursday. Other category winners were Darren Davidson, Hamish Baillie and John Logan.
This week’s profile of Scottish Borders Council’s athlete support programme features Aaron Drake, a young swimmer from Peebles.
COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD - Use our Get in Touch form to send us details of your forthcoming events.
A new mixed voice community choir is launching in Peebles this month. Milly Rose Music is setting up a second choir following a successful year for Tweed Harmony. Tweed Voices will launch on Wednesday 19th August, 7-8:30pm in the Lounge at Peebles Drill Hall. Sign up details are here. £5 for the first session with flexi/block book options available thereafter.
St Ronan’s Silver Band is hosting a coffee morning on Saturday 15 August (10-12) at the Memorial Hall and a Bingo & Family Games Night on Saturday 19 August, 7pm, at the 856 Social Club, Chapel St, Innerleithen.
Peebles Orchestra invites you to Come and Sing Verdi’s Requiem on Sunday 6 September at Innerleithen Memorial Hall. Tickets can be booked to participate as a singer or as an audience member. (Update - the day for this was corrected from Saturday to Sunday after the email went out)
Peebles Youth Theatre is hosting a fundraising quiz on Friday 11 September at 7pm. Teams of up to 4 people can register for £20.
On 12 September, Kailzie Live is a one day music festival (10am - 4pm) set in the gardens of Kailzie Estate. There will be a community stage with local bands and choirs and a stage in the glasshouse for classical music. Peebles Silver Band, In Chorus, Innerleithen Silver Band, Tweed Harmony, Hattie Corbishley Harpist, Syrinx Flutes and Gina McDonald and Nigel Clayton playing violin and piano are all performing. Tickets are available on the day: £12/£10 with under 16s free. Season pass holders can attend for £5.
EVENTS THIS WEEK
Sunday 9 August
Eshiels Community Woodland volunteer day, 10am - 1.30pm. See their FB page for details and instructions.
Exhibition opening: Evelyn McEwan, A Tale of Two Halves, Dawyck Botanic Garden
Cinema: Andre Rieu: Viva Masstricht, Eastgate Theatre, 1pm and 6pm
Monday 10 August
Cinema: Moana (PG), Eastgate Theatre, 12 noon
Wednesday 12 August
Cinema: Moana (PG), Eastgate Theatre, 1pm and 6pm
Local Citizens Panel meeting for people with learning disabilities (14+) and their parents/carers, Firholm Day Unit, 10am - 12 noon.
Thursday 13 August
Caroline Convey exhibition opens at the Eastgate studio (until 18 September)
Ice House survey, Hay Lodge Park, 9.30am - 3.30pm
Coffee Clubs coffee morning at the Village Hall, Walkerburn, 10-12
Cinema: Three Amigos (PG), Eastgate Theatre, 7.30pm
Friday 14 August
Duplo (10.30am - 12) and Lego (1.30pm -2.30pm) sessions at the Burgh Hall, Peebles
Innerleithen Music Festival, various venues
Hotel California (Eagles tribute), Eastgate Theatre, 7.30pm
Saturday 15 August
Innerleithen Music Festival, various venues
SBC community feedback stall at Peebles Farmer’s Market, 9am - 3pm
Hotel California (Eagles tribute), Eastgate Theatre, 7.30pm
JOB VACANCIES
New roles at Hay Lodge Hospital, Peebles HS, Forest Holidays, Tesco and Dawyck Botanic Garden.
MORE NEWS
As part of the River Tweed Trail, planning applications have been lodged to construct new footbridges at Easter Happrew and NW of Manor Brig to replace the demolished bridges of the disused railway.
Eight new industrial units beside the WM Rose & Sons garage in Lamancha have been consented this week. The units are approved for Class 4 (business) and Class 5 (general industrial).
Works have been consented on Peebles High Street to integrate the shops and restore the shop front of numbers 62-64 back into a single retail unit. These were formerly Calzeat and William Hill.
“Additional project costs” of £2m for the new Peebles High School are being reported in the latest council financial tracking. Around half of this overspend (£1.019m) is due to the unforeseen cost of asbestos removal as part of the demolition of the old school building. Tuesday’s meeting of SBC’s Executive Committee (Finance) will seek approval to use funding allocated for Emergency and Unplanned Schemes to cover some of the costs. Between Peebles HS and the new Galashiels Academy, the council has an unmet cost of £4.7m to be sourced. Plans for this will come back to a future meeting.
A council meeting on Thursday will consider options to uplift (by a small amount) the funding for community councils. Currently Tweeddale CCs operate on a total combined budget of £9,521 for 2026-27.
Applications are open for young people aged 16-19 to apply for Education Maintenance Allowance.
Thanks for reading! If there’s anything we’ve missed please pop it into the comments.
The Peeblean
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