Cultivating

Not enough days in this week but I suspect I might be saying that for a wee while. Was successfully appointed as the new Convenor for Health, Social Care and Housing at yesterday's full Council meeting. Now getting to grips with some of the very real issues and expecting to be handed a chunky list of commitments to deliver from the recently signed coalition partnership agreement. Was also nominated yesterday as the Council's representative on NHS Lothian's board. Not a role I had anticipated up until a few days ago but given the obvious cross over between many of the Council's care services and the NHS it makes sense. Apparently my appointment has to be ratified by the Cabinet Secretary for Health so better not make any definite plans until official say so has been received.

Productive afternoon, following a constituent visit in Balerno I headed to Ratho Library for a coffee and a chat with some of the local staff and mums while youngsters played computer games and pulled long balloons into embarrassing shapes. Then on to the Bridge Inn where Cala Homes are showing an exhibition of their plans to replace the previously agreed care home with 14 houses at the Freelands Road site. There is a rationale for this but I suspect there will be a little unease locally at the loss of such an important element in the development.

Remember the blog post I did in February after planting two apple trees in the garden ? Well the photo above is the rather impressive progress being made following a somewhat mixed few months of weather. Not expecting a bumper harvest any time soon but am delighted to see that they seem to be healthy and developing well.