Hub News Blog Posts

  General waste  A big business waste metal bin of the type the council formerly had here would present us with a significant expense that we believe we could do without. Moreover, we are morally opposed to the level of waste produced by communities. The government is attempting to address this overconsumption of resources, but often in a wasteful manner. We aim to lead the way in tackling our community's waste issues. At the hub, we've started by replacing the former massive, non-recyclable general waste only bin used for business waste with a single green wheelie bin designated for general waste—similar to those used by households. However, while it’s the same size as those bins, it’s still classified as trade waste, meaning it gets picked up on different days from the residential bins in the area. This has created some confusion. The bin has a yellow sticker on it to indicate to the collectors that it's for trade waste.  On one occasion, when we put it out on what we k...

The Bovine Lactation and Waste Problems The Bovine Lactation Problems For the first few months of operation, our bookings coordinator was purchasing cow's milk— (milk is the brand name for one of the bovine lactation products that's causing us issues)— many of the groups that use the hub, have been socially conditioned to add cow`s lactation to their cups of tea and coffee. The honesty box we set up to cover costs in buying this product for this purpose, in the early days covered the cost of the so-called moo juice. However, as time has went on the honesty box is not working and our volunteers are too busy to monitor the situation of supply and usage. also waste of all kinds has become a significant issue. The volunteers managing the hub include one who is dairy-free for compassionate reasons related to the industrial cruelty of agribusiness on animals. No other management volunteers care about animal welfare, but the other member of the team, who was previously purchasing this...

 Here is  the results from the “It's Your Neighbourhood” assessment conducted by Keep Scotland Beautiful. in early August this is a joint assessment, as we requested Keep Scotland Beautiful to include our associate group, Brae’s Friendly Growers (BFGs). They are currently based at the Hub and its land, But in future they aim to promote community education across the district regarding permaculture. We believe the assessment provided by Keep Scotland Beautiful accurately reflects our efforts. The Hub is pleased with their level 4 (thriving)assessment of our achievements, although we are not yet sure how high the ratings can go. We understand that BFGs, being a grassroots pioneering group, are just beginning their journey; thus, a Level rating of one (establishing) is justified at this early stage of development. we recieved this from KSB with further information - Many thanks for taking the time to show our volunteers  around.   Please find your 2025 It’s Your Neighbo...

Our first year -  Heat and Power Management Last year at this time, we faced numerous challenges in discovering how to take a meter reading for our electricity. It was not easy, and even the strategic property review team at the council struggled with it. In the end, Claire figured out how to take the electric meter reading. EDF placed us on their emergency tariff, which took effect on October 1, 2024. The initial bill from this tariff caused us significant headaches, resulting in days lost to phone calls, meetings, emails, and letters. However, we can now celebrate a success story: Claire took our meter readings on the evening of September 30, 2025. We now have the exact figures for kilowatt-hours used and the associated costs for our first full year. Claire continues to take monthly readings and monitor our tariff. We also know the kWh usage from the council in previous years. Our sustainability manager is working on his impact report for our first year, which isn’t ready for pub...

                         Our Electric Heaters When we took over operations from the council, we inherited their electric heating system in the wooden areas hub rooms. Unfortunately, these sections lacked good insulation and are very draughty. Many of the heaters were not functioning properly when we took over; there were numerous heaters constantly switched on, showing red lights and making noise—drawing electricity but giving off no heat. We immediately turned off all of these faulty heaters and placed "Broken - Do Not Switch On" signs at their switches. Not only were many heaters not working, but some of those that did were covered with wooden radiator covers, which hinder convection, especially as these heaters had no fans. All of the rooms were equipped with two-kilowatt wall radiators, while the hallway had four efficient, wall-mounted fan-assisted one-kilowatt el...