Paying Off The Debt

Council's Audit Committee met this morning. Most of the discussion was in connection with Audit Scoptlands report on the Council's Finances (2010/11). You can read the report here . It covers virtually every aspect of Council activity so there was plently of scope for debate. It confirmed that the Council's debt currently stands at an eye watering £1,300,000,000 ! The bad news is that its due to increase by a further £231m once the tram borrowing requirement is secured and in the system. That will take the city's total debt to more than £1.5bn. Of course we won't get a bail out by the European Central Bank or any other such body. Edinburgh tax payers will be paying it off for decades to come, currently at the rate of atround £100m a year (that's £100,000,000 every year. That's about 10% of the Council's Revenue budget. If, as looks likely, the Council's grant from the Scottish Government continues to decline then the proportion of our budget required to service the debt will increase thereby putting more pressure on already stretched front line services. Don't mean to be unnecessarily alarmist about this but if the scenario above was played out within your own household budget you'd be pretty worried. 

Billy Bragg

Went to see Billy Bragg last night at the Queens Hall. Brilliant. Just Billy, a guitar and a cup of tea and banter with the crowd and a great collection of songs, old and new. "Never Buy the Sun" was a particular highlight.

Remembrance

The somewhat nomadic Haymarket Remembrance Day service took place this morning in Grosvenor Street. An big turn out, helped by the fine conditions no doubt. The service was excellent as usual but its clearly not satisfactory to hold a Remembrance service in the middle of a street where poppy wreaths are laid against a Heras fence with a small banner with a picture of the Haymarket clock on it. The people at Macrae's Trust and the Haymarket Memorial Committee have shown remarkable patience over the last couple of years by putting up with various ad hoc arrangements. Not sure why the club felt that the event had to moved away from the stadium where it had worked particularly well in the last two years.

Bingo

Retro 70s Bingo night was a hoot. Sausages on sticks, Skol lager, crap prizes and cheesy music. Brilliant night ! Brought to you courtesy of the wodenrful people at Edinburgh North & Leith Labour Party. I think it might just catch on.

Moving Forward Right Enough

Attended a mandatory candidates briefing this morning. Heaps of information to digest and its a sobering thought to realise how much work lies ahead. Immediately. This afternoon was spent in Currie delivering the first batch of the Edinburgh Labour newspaper and a local leaflet. Went well and it was a nice afternoon for it. Tonight, its off to the Bingo. No..... really.

Follow The Money

First of numerous budget consultation meetings the other night, co-hosted by the Pentlands and South West Neighbourhood Partnerships at the Gorgie Parish church, next to Tynecastle. Went reasonably well with a brief introduction by Gillian Tee, Director of Children and Families at the Council followed by a comprehensive but not impenetrable presentation by Chief Financial Officer Karen Kelly, before breaking into groups to come up with ideas for maintaining and improving Council services, taking into account the current financial climate. Certainly a bit more inclusive than the loaded question, electronic voting effort last year. Karen's presentation did clarify one thing for me. The current / ongoing Council Tax "freeze" is no longer fully funded by the SNP Government. Instead its included within our "flat cash settlement" i.e. no extra funding but the freeze remains. For Edinburgh this equates to about £7m shortfall year on year. That means, bluntly, by clever sleight of hand, services face more cuts in order to deliver a SNP election promise. Frankly, I'm surprised this hasn't come under greater scrutiny. People seem distracted by the one question, two question, Devo Max vs Indie Lite argument and the real current issues seem to have been left behind.

Clovie and Balerno

The Clovie LS Twirlers

Clovenstone Community Centre AGM the other night followed by the Clovie LS Twirlers who were in fine form and then the traditional Clovie Fireworks, which went with a bang. Then off to the November meeting of Balerno Community Council. Busy, as usual, and a lovely tribute from Tom McColl's daughter who I don't think had been to BCC before but wanted to acknowledge how much his involvement with the Council and planning matters had meant to Tom who passed away peacefully in his sleep, aged 91, after the October meeting.

Consultation Launched

Team Labour with our brand new consultation document

It's now just less than 6 months until next year's Council elections and we got our campaign underway yesterday with the launch of our consultation document which will eventually produce our 2012 Election Manifesto. Much hard work lies ahead but all our 23 candidates are now in place and keen to get on with the campaign. The launch event was very well attended with most of our candidates present, MPs, MSPs, several party members and more press and photographers than I had expected. Good speech from Andrew Burns followed by a fairly in depth question and answer session and then some photos outside in St Columba's by the Castle sun drenched garden. Aah, they say the sun shines on the righteous ! Andrew's speech, the consultation document and more candidate details can be found at our new website edinburghlabour.com/ and some comprehensive coverage of the proceedings by STV Local here . We genuinely want as much feedback as possible so will welcome comments over the next few weeks on the website and at the facebook page as well as a series of meetings with stakeholder groups around the city.

Suntrap Campaign takes another small step forward

I was delighted to get my motion on the Suntrap campaign unanimously agreed at Thursday's Council meeting. A small deputation from Save Our Suntrap attended as a deputation and it was good to be able to get the message over to all Councillors and agree for a report to look into the wider ownership issues and options for future management arrangements.

The Best Lyrics Ever ?

 

John Prine, "Grandpa was a Carpenter"

" Grandpa was a carpenter, he built houses, stores and banks,

He chain smoked Camel cigarettes and hammered nails in planks."

Aye, they don't write them like that anymore. Superb. Check out John's other stuff at YouTube.

Group Meeting

Labour Group meeting last night, 6.30 - 9.30pm, main issues, as expected, the ABM debate, Gaelic Medium Education and the ongoing Property Services investigation, all of which will dominate the business at tomorrow's full Council meeting. And of course my motion on the Suntrap Garden at Gogar ! Pleased to see it on the agenda and I believe it will be dealt with at the Council meeting rather than being referred to a committe. Expecting a deputation too which will be a good chance for all elected members to understand the issues, even if they may be distracted by some of the other business. Some interesting comments being attributed to the SNP group today about preferring to support the in house option rather than the ABM contract with Enterprise. Can they really support this process every step of the way, spending millions on the ABM propcess only to perform a U turn at the eleventh hour ? We shall see.... Juniper Green Community Council meeting tonight, hope its not a late one.

Where were they ?

Went along to the Unison hosted public meeting last night at Appleton Tower to discuss the Council's ABM process ahead of Thursday's Council decision on whether or not to privatise Environmental Services (refuse collection etc). It was firmly but fairly chaired by Evening News columnist Martin Hannan whose good humour helped to keep the contributions on track. It was well attended (200 ?) and there were a lot of good points made and arguments thrashed out. It could have been a much more informative event though if the Council Administration had turned up. My understanding is that the SNP and LibDems had agreed to attend, along with a senior Council official but all cancelled at short notice for various reasons. Very disappointing, and the audience, most of whom were Council workers I think, will draw their own conclusions. The panel of Peter Hunter from Unison, Andrew Burns (Labour) and Jeremy Balfour (Conservative) more than filled the void left by others and had a good debate with each other and the audience about the merits or otherwise of the process and the decisions that lie ahead. It would be fair to say that I don't think Jeremy won over many people to his pro-ABM stance but at least he was there to make his points and listen to others.

The Hardest Hit

I went along to the "Hardest Hit" rally (covered in the scotland on sunday ) at the Ross Bandstand in Prince's Street Gardens. I've never seen so many guide dogs and wheelchairs in one place before. It just shows how strongly people with disabilities feel about the impending changes to be imposed by the Welfare Reform Bill and that they are prepared to mobilise and make their voices heard. There were some very moving testimonies from the rostrum about the challenges faced by people with physical and mental health problems and the fairly self obvious fact that a little bit of support from us all, via the state, can make a huge difference. The speeches were rounded off with a excellent contribution from Iain Gray. It does seem an injustice that the Condem coalition's efforts to revitalise the economy requires an attack on the weakest and most vulnerable in our society.

Friday

Sir Harry Burns

Last night was the Edinburgh South West Labour Party AGM. Good attendance and good to see many of the main officerial roles and responsibilities taken on by women. I was replaced as Political Education Officer which is obviously a bit of a set back to my career but I'll just have to get over it ....

This morning, as requested, we got a briefing on the Property Services investigation, which is to be reported to the Council meeting next Thursday. As has now been covered in the media, what the report doesn't say is probably more significant than what it does say. Essentially, investigations are ongoing, including the police inquiry so there's an understandable reluctance to reveal too much information until several strands of work are complete. Not terribly satisfactory but at the least the report does provide some options for re-establishing a property services / statutory repair function.

Then it was off to the CoSLA Convention meeting at their new offices (hadn't realised they'd moved) at Haymarket. It was started by a brief presentation from Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Sir Harry Burns. He was characteristically direct in his assertion that the country's collective efforts at tackling health inequalities, or inadequacies as he referred to them, are failing miserably. Compared to other European countries and indeed some English regions we are simply not seeing positive results from the various public health campaigns. In particular he targeted adverse events in a child's first three years as having a significant effect on their future health, well being and ultimately life expectancy. Sobering stuff indeed and while many delegates agreed with his analysis there wasn't much in the way of incisive ideas to shake us out of the current malaise. 

Alternative or just old fashioned privatisation ?

Myself and Sheila Gilmore MP sign
Unison's call for more consultation

Alternative Business Models have dominated the last week and look set to do so for the next 3 months. Decisions are now due on Facilities Management and CATS (Corporate & Transactional Services) - don't worry about what they are, I'll explain later - have been postponed until November and December respectively. The most imminent issue is a recommendation, to be published tomorrow, that the Council "privatises" its Environmental Services division. That's refuse collection, grass cutting, litter picking etc, and the workers affected be Tupe'd to a new employer under a service contract that will last for a minimum of 7 years. Now, using private sector companies to deliver public services is nothing new and sometimes its necessary to secure specialist expertise that may not easily be provided from within the Council. Not necessarily an argument that applies to this service, but you get my drift.

Among numerous other concerns, one issue stands out as the Council prepares to make far reaching and irreversible decisions about public services in the city. And that is - do the public actually agree with this approach ? Well, we don't know, because they haven't been asked. However, there is a perfect opportunity to test this question with the public and that's next year's Council elections. Those parties who advocate the ABM approach can put it clearly in their manifestos and those who disagree and can make that position equally clear. Simples.

Sadly, life's never that straight forward and instead it is likely that decision will be imposed on the next Council regardless of the political make up of the Administration or views of individual councillors or members of the public. Pretty scandalous and undemocratic in this day and age.



Karaoke has never sounded so good !



Big Plans

Full Council meeting tomorrow. The Agenda doesn't look that heavy so we stand a good chance of getting finished in daylight. One report that hasn't attracted a great deal of attention but is the first step in significant plans for the city and the rest of South East Scotland is the SESplan Strategic Development Plan which is due to be endorsed by all six councils that make up the SESplan area. The report can be read on this link . Amongst other things its driven by the Scottish Government's instruction to Councils to identify land for more housing. The plan will cover the next 25 - 30 years so will, by necessity, be high level, strategic and subject to change. With the knowledge that various developers have been floating ideas about development on greenfield sites I was a bit concerned that endorsing the plan tomorrow would allocate specific sites for development. Thankfully that's not the case and a further "Plan" (the Local Development Plan) will be submitted to Planning Committee in early October then be subject to public consultation on sites identfied in the report. That's when the fun will start....

Suntrap Garden

Went to visit the Suntrap Garden at Gogarbank yesterday to meet with a couple of representatives from the Friends of Suntrap group who are campaigning to keep the garden and associated facilities open to the public and the various groups who benefit from the opportunities to learn gardening skills in a fabulous environment. Many of the activities are focussed towards people with learning difficulties who particulalry seem to thrive in this setting. Due to a historical twist, the garden, which was bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland and the old Edinburgh Corporation in 1972 by philanthropist George Boyd Anderson, appears to have ended up in the ownership of Oatridge College and they and the NTS have decided that they can no longer afford to support the facility and wish to sell the site. They may have the legal right to sell but the morality of this move is highly questionable. I feel the Council could play a more active part in this situation and it might be time to rattle some cages.

Happy Birthday Ricky

My namesake celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday. Surrounded by friends and admirers at Edinburgh Zoo, the birthday boy seems to have had a grand time and in the process attracted the interest of the world's media. 
Hope I look that good when I turn 50.....

"Scorchio"..... not

Having enjoyed wall to wall "scorchio" on a week's golfing break in Portugal it was back to work on Monday and a return to the good old Scottish Autumnal climate of sunshine, showers, gales, frost, mist and cloud. Couple of visits to constituents in Balerno followed by Currie Comunity Council on Monday night. CEC Holdings board meeting yesterday followed by the Regulatory Committee (Taxi Licensing) (does tend to give one a very jaundiced, if unjustified, view of people in and around the taxi trade). Also a visit to meet some residents in Juniper Green who will be affected by a new housing development that will replace / refurbish the old Juniper Green Primary School which has been lying in a rather neglected and derelict state for some time. The developers were there and they promised to take way all the points raised about overlooking of neighbours and the height of the proposed new houses. I wait with bated breath to see if the plans are amended prior to a planning decision being made.

Conversions

A momentous decision at the Special Council meeting today. The tram, after all, will be completed to St Andrew's Square, but at a significant cost. An additional £231m to be precise, although there are no guarantees that it won't increase further. That level of borrowing, as voted through by the SNP/LibDems, will cost the city £15.3m per year to pay back, for the next thirty years ! We backed the St Andrew's Square option but only if the SNP Government provided the additional financial support. It was their intervention after all, via Transport Scotland, that had created the circumstances for the decision to be revisited. The local SNP Group duly voted in favour of the tram to be completed to SAS with the Edinburgh Council Tax payer picking up the tab. The Council's SNP Group have now had more positions on this than the Kama Sutra ! More seriously it was actually a decent debate, in recognition of the seriousness of the situation, I suspect, with contributions a bit more measured than in the past. If anyone wants to dig through the detail of today's events and the background papers I recommend Andrew Burns blog on this link.