Drylaw Telford CC meeting date

Drylaw Telford Community Council will hold their first meeting of 2015 on Wednesday 28 January at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. All welcome.

AGENDA

1 Welcome

2 Attendees

3 Apologies for Absence

4 Approve Minutes of the last meeting (26th November 2104) & any matters arising

5 Reports :-

• Police Report
• Councillors Report
• Treasurer’s Report
• EDRA (Easter Drylaw Residents Association)
• Telford Reps Report

6 Parking Issues Drylaw Shops (Update)

7 Thomas Tierney 2015

8 Correspondence

9 Date of Next Meeting (25th Febuary 2015).

Friends to meet next Thursday

The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will hold their first meeting of the New Year next Thursday (8 January) at 6pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.

Agenda items include:

Sharing latest news, plans and ideas!
Slideshow of garden images
Membership forms
Nomination and selection of committee members

All welcome

They came, they saw, they cleaned up!

Residents give Granton Mill a right good going over!

Granton Mill residents rolled up their sleeves and joined city council staff to clean up their community recently. A small but enthusiastic band picked litter, cut back vegetation and cleared dumped rubbish and soon had the area looking spick and span (whatever spick and span looks like!)

Community council secretary Willie Black lives in Granton Mill and he initiated the area clean up. He said: “We wanted to encourage residents to join together to clean up their community and take pride in where they live – we want Granton Mill to be a place people want to stay.

“We were looking for a commitment of even just an hour or two and it was good to see local people answering the call. You can see the difference it’s made and the challenge now is to keep this momentum going and build on what we’ve achieved.”

The Granton Mill cleanup follows a similar day of action in West Pilton as part of the #StrongerNorth initiative. It’s ikely that more will follow in the New Year.

Willie has sent in some pictures of the Sunday morning cleanup (below) and there are more to follow:

Budget: Council ‘needs to think again’

‘Thinking needs to be done, not only in this city but across Scotland. This is the important missing element in this consultation.’

Granton and District Community Council has urged the city council to think again over proposed budget cuts. The community council’s response to the budget proposals follows a local consultation conducted by community councillors last week.

Community council secretary Dave Macnab said: “We have submitted this response to the city council on behalf of those who attended our local consultation exercise. When the people within our area found out scale of the cuts – for they are cuts, calling them savings is double speak – they were appalled.

We are calling on all councillors and in particular those who represent us in Forth to oppose the cuts. The council needs to think again.”

GDCC_December_Budget_response

Granton & District CC’s budget response reads:

Dear Sir/Madam,

City of Edinburgh Council – Budget Consultation

Background

1.1 As part of the Council ‘Budget Challenge’ consultation 2015/16 the Council outlines that it faces a budget challenge which ultimately means that “we need to save £67 million over the next three years”. The main thrust of the consultation as far as we can see has been the encouragement of the citizens of Edinburgh to go ‘on line’ and ‘take the budget challenge’ which is an on line platform that encourages people to decide what services they want to cut.

1.2 Granton and District Community Council were not convinced that having an on line consultation exercise was sufficient to get the views of all of the people of Edinburgh given the scale of the cuts that are being proposed. Whilst we acknowledge that there were a series of ‘drop in’ events for people across the city, the focus of these was on showing people how to view and work the budget ‘game’.

This means that people who do not have regular access to IT – often older residents and those who do not have access to IT – will miss out on the opportunity to have their say. It is our view that the scale of the proposed budget cuts will have a disproportionate and negative impact on these very people – often the poorest in our communities. As a consequence we decided to undertake our own consultation exercise.

Granton and District Community Council – Consultation

2.1 We organised a drop in day for Tuesday 9 December at Royston & Wardieburn Community Centre – we were in the centre from 9.30 – 6.30 pm.

2.2 To promote the event we distributed 2000 leaflets across our community council area that highlighted the purpose of the event etc.

2.3 We also placed posters across our community to advertise the event. We also made full use of social media – including our web site and twitter account.

2.4 We drew up a list of some of the key proposals (that the council had identified in the consultation document) that we considered would have severe and negative impact within our area and asked people to comment on these – via post-its, voting stickers, and by talking to us. We noted down what they said as well as have them write down their concerns. Not everyone used the ‘voting stickers’.

Outcome of the Consultation

3.1 Despite the terrible weather conditions we had 52 people who spoke to us. Every person we spoke to were “astonished”, “amazed”, “had no idea” of the scale of the cuts.

Clearly the on line budget consultation has not resulted in the people within our community having any idea of the scale or specifics of the cuts proposed and the impact on what this means in real terms. This was our fear and so it has been realised. The real impact needs to be clearly articulated by the Council before any decisions are made.

3.2 The qualitative data is outlined in Appendix 1

Consultation Conclusions and Recommendations

4.1 It is clear that the council does not have enough income to deliver the services for the people it serves. Yet nowhere do we see that there has been any thinking done to increase income. The focus is on cutting services. We believe this is a one dimensional approach.

4.2 We do not believe that sufficient impact assessment evidence has been produced to provide a clear socio-economic evaluation on most proposals.

4.3 We therefore call on the council to approach the Scottish Government with a view to obtaining additional grant funding to cover the services for the people of Edinburgh. If the Scottish Government cannot provide this – then they in turn should be advised to approach the UK Government for emergency funding.

4.4 We believe this city is facing a funding crisis and moving money from one area to another is divisive and will not solve the fundamental issue which is insufficient income. Given the changing demographics and growth in overall population as the race to ever further house building continues, the pressure on the city infrastructure and public services is at breaking point. The squeeze on council finances will continue and people will continue to suffer. Therefore a more fundamental approach to local authority funding is needed and this thinking needs to be done, not only in this city but across Scotland. This is the important missing element in this consultation.

4.5 We think it worth reminding the council and our elected representatives of a report of the Communities and Neighbourhood Committee of 24^th November that highlighted the levels of poverty and inequality across this city:

Some 22% of all households in the city live on incomes below the poverty threshold, slightly above the Scottish average
24% of all Edinburgh households lived in fuel poverty in 2012. This equates to some 53,600 households in the city.

4.6 There is an irony in that one of council actions to help deal with poverty and inequality as outlined in this report stated:

“Ways to improve neighbourhoods are crucial and include place making and building community capacity. Examples are given of community learning and development to help with basic skills and to support community organisations, advice work to help poor households retain stable accommodation, improving the insulation of homes to reduce fuel poverty, and community safety actions to make residents feel safer by reducing anti-social behaviour.

Whilst one of the council budget cut proposals is:

“Carry out a full service review of CLD reducing the level of staffing at all grades, realigning staff against emerging neighbourhood models of work, prioritising service…..there may be some reduction in community based programme…..”

Clearly these two things are contradictory.

4.7 We consider that the only way that our city will meet people’s aspirations in terms of reducing poverty and inequality is by way of a fairer, more progressive tax system. When you take account of direct and indirect taxes, those on low incomes in the UK are being hit hard, while billions of pounds each year is lost through tax avoidance and evasion (by the richest). Progressive tax reforms would help to address inequality at root as well as redistributing economic power.

4.8 There has been under-investment in public sector, in technology, in infrastructure, in education for years. It is enlightening to quote the words from Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz who served as Chairman of the Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton and Chief Economist at the World Bank:

“One should remember austerity has almost never worked. This is an idea that’s been tried over and over again; back in 1929 Herbert Hoover tried it, succeeded in converting the stock market crash into the Great Depression – there were some other factors too. The IMF has tried this experiment; in East Asia I saw it in the years that I was at the World Bank; they tried it in Latin America; each time it succeeded in converting downturns into recessions, recessions into depressions”.

Whilst we recognise that these wider economic issues are not within the remit of the city council we make this statement as part of a wider debate that we consider needs to take place in Scotland and is the economic and social context in which the current cuts are being proposed.

4.9 We call on the council not to implement the current proposals. Everyone that we spoke to said no. There was a strong view that the council have not thought hard or innovatively enough and do need to take a stronger step in supporting the people in rejecting the current economic paradigm and seek a new approach that supports the aspirations of the people of this city. We reject the budget proposals as currently outlined and call on our elected representatives within Forth and beyond to reject them.

Granton and District Community Council
http://grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantonDistCC

We’re no’ playin’ your game!

Community groups unite to oppose council cuts

Community groups, local organisations and concerned individuals have united to protest against imminent council cuts. The say the council’s budget proposals will hit the poorest people hardest and have written to local councillors urging them to support the fight against slashing local services.

Last week’s hastily convened meeting at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre was organised by Women’s International Group and was attended by more than twenty local people – community councillors, management committee members, health service workers and local staff were all there. No councillors were present at the meeting.

WIG’s Anna Hutchison explained that the Women’s International Group had attended a Budget Challenge meeting and were unhappy about the way the consultation exercise was conducted – no-one attended to explain what was being proposed or to answer questions, and the Challenge was being presented as a fait accompli – ‘these are your only options’.

The group also felt it was wrong that local people were being asked to take part in a process to cut services that would pit one area or service off against another, so decided to call a public meeting to gauge the views of the wider community.

“It’s not for us to do the councillors’ work for them”, she said. “We elect councillors to set budgets and run the city. We expect them to listen to us and to protect our precious local services.”

The Council faces a considerable budget challenge. Between 2015 and 2018, the Council’s annual budget will remain around £950 million but the council expects the cost of providing services to be £1.01 billion.

The council says it must make savings of £67 million over the next three years ‘to make sure we can provide the services that are important to the people of Edinburgh’.

Granton and District community councillor Dave Macnab told the meeting: “I’ve been struck by the fact that this budget consultation is almost like a game of Monopoly – except this time you are dealing with real people and real services. This is no game and I think people are sleepwalking into this process. What these abstract proposals mean in reality is cuts on an unimaginable scale”.

He went on: “I am quite disturbed – officials seem to be accepting that this is the way it must be. I would ask: what happens if we say ‘NO’?”

West Granton West Pilton community councillor Willie Black said that recent problems of antisocial behaviour in the area could be traced directly to poverty and unemployment – and that austerity measures, slashed budgets and cuts in local services would make an already bad situation much worse.

He also questioned the council’s figures, suggesting that the scale of cuts is much deeper – not £67 million but £142 million over the next three years.

Willie Black said it was vital that communities combined to fight the cuts being imposed upon them – ‘cuts that are being inflicted on us through no fault of our own, and yet the poor are the people who get the blame’. He said: “Alliances are being formed – we’ve got to put all our energies into a collective effort to challenge these cuts.

“And we’ve got to ask the councillors: in the war against the poor, where do you stand?”

The meeting was then thrown open for debate and discussion. Among the points raised during a passionate and enthusiastic session:

It is unclear what the £67 m in the Council’s budget leaflet represents. It looks like the savings to be made over 3 years is significantly higher than £67m – this needs to be clarified.
There are a number of headings in the Council’s budget paper termed ‘Other’. These sections involve huge sums of money but there is no explanation as to what this relates to. This needs to be broken down so that we can see what it includes.
The savings identified are very confusing – it isn’t clear what they relate to – this should be explained better in a way that lay people can understand
It is impossible to make an informed decision based on this information
The language used excludes people – it is gobbledygook!
The language used attempts to disguise the fact that ‘savings’ are actually cuts – people need to be aware of this.
The Council are asking the citizens of Edinburgh to approve their cuts – this is not
It is disgusting that elected members are not here – they always have excuses for not turning up to important local meetings. Councillors are elected to represent their constituents – we vote for them to do a job on our behalf and they get paid to do it.
Communities are being expected to identify which services they want to cut – this is unacceptable
The consultation is a sham – the decisions have already been made. The same thing happened with the consultation on the closure of Royston Primary School – they didn’t listen to the community then. The facts they presented to local people were proved to be complete nonsense. Can we trust them on the figures we have been presented with this time round?
Councillors and senior officials never put their hands up and admit their mistakes (ie the trams, Royston Primary School, Craigroyston High School)
Community councillors are sent huge amounts of information from the Council – it is impossible to read through it all and often to understand because of the language used. This makes it very difficult for community councillors to present this information in a meaningful way to the wider community
The Council has already sub-contracted services out to private firms (someone received a letter re their single person discount – it was sent from a firm in Derbyshire). This is privatisation by the back door
It is accepted that the Council needs more cash to fund local services and that the council tax freeze isn’t helping the situation. The Council tax needs to be changed to make it more progressive so that the better off pay more.
We are constantly told that events like the Festival and the Hogmanay celebrations are a good investment as they bring extra cash into the city but we never actually see the figures and we don’t see the benefits in our communities. This income should be audited and it should be set aside for local services. There needs to be better transparency in the Council’s financial systems.
Education should be a priority – libraries and community centres are often a starting point for learning – they provide safe spaces in the community for children, young people and adults
Libraries and community centres are fantastic local facilities and provide a great service to all the community.
CLD workers are an important resource in local communities.
If jobs go it won’t be the folk who are high up the tree who go
There have been many examples of serious mismanagement at the Council – the trams project is only The Council are now considering extending the tram line to Leith and paying for another feasibility study. This is a complete waste of public money. Edinburgh has become a laughing-stock around the world because of this fiasco.
Many local organisations refused to display the leaflet publicising this meeting because they said it was political. Some workers are worried that the Council will cut their grants if they are seen to be publicising this kind of event. This position needs to be clarified by the Council.

Impact of cuts

Cuts in local services will result in more crime and anti-social behaviour – this is a false economy as it costs more money to deal with the consequences of crime.
Services for children and young people helps to keep them away from crime – it is more effective to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Cuts in funding to projects who work with hard to reach young people will be a disaster for young people and the wider community. Youth projects are trying to build trust and relationships with young people which can help to steer them away from crime.
Many kids haven’t had a chance in life. Services such as Panmuir House are the last chance saloon for kids who do get into trouble. Close it down and then what happens?
Cuts in services and closures will affect the health and well-being of local people – research shows that going to libraries and museums, taking part in groups and activities improves health – cuts in services will result in more illness and will put more pressure on the system
Cuts in jobs means public sector workers are being asked to take on more responsibilities – this puts people under stress and can lead to them going off sick. They then get pulled up by management and put under more pressure to return to work – this adds to the stress factor.
Workers in the public sector are scared to go off sick these days despite the fact that they have valid sick lines– there has been a change in management culture in public services in recent years (examples given about situation in the NHS)
The next generation in this community will end up even more disadvantaged because of the impact of the cuts
People are already struggling without more cuts to basic services. Many people do not have enough to survive on once the bills are paid. Benefit sanctions are being used to penalize people for minor things (being late for an interview). People are having to go without money and food and having to rely on food banks and support from local services.
High levels of unemployment and poverty in the past resulted in an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour. Many people moved out of the area and this had a negative affect on the people who were left. This is likely to happen again if we don’t have services in place to support people.

The meeting came up with a number of ideas about what the council could do to address budget difficulties:

Introduce a ‘tourist tax’ to bring cash into the city – this could be used to subsidise local services
Introduce a hotel levy during the Festival and the Christmas and New Year Celebrations
Raise the council tax – the Council has the power to do this. They will need to ensure that this does not penalize poorer people.
Reduce expenditure on things like taxi-fares, council lunches, official visits abroad and the like – this is unnecessary expenditure.
Find other ways of making savings that don’t involve cutting services or sacking workers who provide front line services
Dig out the last feasibility study on extending the tram line to Leith – this will save £1/2m.

The meeting agreed to write to local politicians and to forge links with other groups across the city. The North Edinburgh anti-cuts campaigners also plan to meet early in the New Year to discuss sending a deputation to the city council’s budget meeting in February.

If you want to have your say:

Take the budget challenge

But hurry – last day for submissions is tomorrow

Friday 19 December

Background reports:

Budget_proposals_2015_2016_updated_28.10.14

Item_7.3___2015_18_Revenue_and_Capital_Budget_Framework

#StrongerNorth Community Cleanup Day

Granton Mill Community Cleanup

Sunday 14 December 10am – 12 noon

The #StrongerNorth initiative is supporting a second community cleanup …

The condition of the communal areas around our homes is in urgent need of improvement. You will know that there has been a lot of dumping of rubbish and other items which needs to be addressed. As most of us are owners or privately renting tenants it is our responsibility to ensure that our shared apaces are looked after and fit for living in.

On Sunday 14 December form 10am you are invited to take part in a community cleanup of the edges and green spaces in our area. The City of Edinburgh Council is supporting us with this work and is providing equipment for the day.

The hope is that together we can make the area a place that is safe and enjoyable for everyone who lives here. In order to do this we want to make sure that everyone meets their responsibilities, so we will be working with the council and others to find ways to best achieve this.

If you are able to spare some time on Sunday, then please come along and take part -it would be great to have as many people as possible helping!Please egt in toucj if you have any questions

SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 10am – 12 noon

MEET AT CRAIGROYSTON HIGH SCHOOL end of GRANTON MILL PLACE

Contact Willie Black 0751 568 6421, email w.black@blueyonder.co.uk

Fraser Sinclair, North Neighbourhood Office 0131 529 5023

#StrongerNorth

Be part of it

Some pictures taken during the recent West Pilton cleanup:

Letter: Muirhouse & Salvesen CC supports the NEN

Dear Dave,

Members of the Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council wish to convey a vote of thanks on behalf of members of the community on the latest issue of the NEN.

The local people’s newspaper has been much missed over the past few years in keeping people in touch with happening in their local community, especially for older people of the community and those who find it hard to get out. Great to see it coming through our letter boxes once again.

We look forward to your December issue which is sure to be filled with local happenings and interesting articles.

We wish the team all the best and are looking forward to more regular issues into the New Year.

Our Community Council support the NEN in its venture and would be happy to assist in any way it can.

Roy Douglas

Chairperson, Muirhouse & Salvesen Community Council

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tonight

Drylaw Telford Community Council hold their last meeting of 2014 tonight in Drylaw Neighbourhood centre (off Groathill Road North).

The meeting starts at 7pm – all welcome.

For further information visit www.drylawtelfordcc.co.uk

The Edinburgh Budget Crisis

Balancing Edinburgh’s budget isn’t a game, writes Granton and District Community Council secretary DAVE MACNAB:

The council is on record that it needs to save £67 million from the budget over the next three years.

Whilst they have been encouraging citizens to complete the ‘budget challenge’ – the real information is not in the ‘playing’ of the budget game (this just shows that difficult decisions are sometimes needed) but within the proposals that are on the ‘table’.

This is where the reality sits. This is what could be in store for the citizens of Edinburgh if we sit back and wait for it to happen.

The cuts are real.

There will be reductions in the service. Things will stop being done.

A brief glimpse at what could happen – based on information taken from the Council budget web site and meetings:

Education Welfare Officers cut from 18 to 16 (jobs lost)
Community Centres – the budget proposals states:

“redesign the service to meet local needs using co-production models”.

Now you may be wondering just what that means.

At a meeting for Community Centre management boards on 20 November we were told that this could mean setting up social enterprise models that need to make a profit, owned and managed by the community or other self-financing models.

Do the current management boards have the capacity and capability to undertake these roles? The audience at the meeting was not convinced.

There is no point talking about empowerment if there is no investment in the people within the communities who will be asked to undertake this type of ‘work’. And it is work – it is no longer volunteering – it becomes a business model that needs accountancy skills so that the books are balanced, people who know employment law if they are to employ staff directly, business managers to project plan the activities.

What would be the role of the current staff in the Centres if it was decided to go down a particular business model route? I don’t know – so many unanswered questions.

Leisure Centres (e.g. Ainslie Park) the report highlights “It is likely that the scale of the reductions identified may lead to facility closure”.
Staff – there is a hope to reduce sickness absence across the council workforce. There is an irony here. As posts are not filled and a recruitment freeze – this of course puts pressure on those in jobs, thus increasing their levels of stress and of course increasing levels of sickness absence!
Parking charges – increase in permit and on street charges
Increase in charges for allotments
Close public toilets – Granton Square to close?
“Proposed to accelerate and extend the development of the ‘Living Landscapes’ approach” – or put another way – let grass areas grow wild.
“Five libraries recategorised leading to a reduction in opening hours in Piershill, Corstorphine (from 51 to 42 hours) and Sighthill, Granton and Kirkliston (from 42 hours to 32 hours).” Cut in library hours.

This is the reality of the situation.

Spending on public services in Britain is set to fall to the lowest share of national income since 1938 which is a sign of how dramatically the UK government’s austerity programme is reshaping the state. The Child Poverty Action Group stated in August of this year that “more people are income-deprived in Edinburgh than in any other local authority area except Glasgow and North Lanarkshire”.

Two-fifths of adults aged 45 to 64 with below-average incomes have a limiting long- term illness, more than twice the rate for adults of the same age with above-average incomes in areas of economic deprivation – of which north Edinburgh has its share.

To mitigate some of the worst excesses of the impact of poverty and exclusion the council advocates that Community Learning and Development (CLD) will play a “pivotal role” (a direct quote from a council paper). Yet at the same time this part of the organisation is hit with a budget cut of over £2million. So how do you square this with the intention towards getting rid of poverty?

It is all very well suggesting that there can be an increase in volunteering opportunities – but do the volunteers have the necessary skills to deal with and help break down social isolation amongst adults and young people – it’s not just a case of turning up.

We need to be clear on what we want to save. What is worth preserving.

We can sit back, have fun playing the ‘budget’ game and hope for the best. Or decide that these services are our services. That the libraries are our libraries. The Community Centres and Leisure Centres are ours. That we will do something about it.

We will be campaigning to raise awareness on what is at stake and giving you an opportunity of having your say. Tell your councillor. Go to your respective Community Council meetings, go to public meetings and get your voice heard.

Dave Macnab

Community Councillor – Granton and District Community Council

www.grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com

Contact nabs89@blueyonder.co.uk

Living in Harmony double-date

The Living in Harmony Forum meets tonight

Tuesday 25 November from 5.30 -7.30pm

at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.

The group has also set a date for a Chat Café at Granton Youth Centre next month – see below

community chat cafe poster december

Rachel Farrier (Development Worker, Living in Harmony)

Pilton Community Health Project