Royston Wardieburn-based community group Power to the People has urged Forth councillors to push to extend the Edinburgh Budget Challenge consultation period to allow more time for ‘proper public debate’.
In an email to local councillors Cardownie, Day, Jackson and Redpath Power to the People group member Anna Hutchison wrote:
Dear Councillor
I am writing to you on behalf of North Edinburgh’s Power to the People group regarding Edinburgh’s Budget Challenge. I have attached our response which details our concerns for your information.
We urge you to extend the consultation period in the interest of local democracy. We believe there needs to be a proper public debate on the alternative solutions being put forward by the unions and community groups like ourselves. This debate must take place in local communities across the city and be organised in a way to maximise the involvement of local people.
We are planning an area wide meeting at the beginning of January to provide a further opportunity for more people to find out about the proposals and to consider the alternatives being put forward. We expect you to prioritise this meeting and to be able to respond to the points we have raised with Gillian Tee. As our elected representatives on the Council you have a duty to listen to what we have to say and to ensure our views are represented in decision making processes.
We welcome the Coalition’s pledge on no compulsory redundancies and we expect this commitment to be maintained in the coming months. Your workforce are providing valuable public services which we cannot afford to lose.
We have high expectations of our Councillors in North Edinburgh. We expect them to behave like politicians and to campaign alongside the unions and community they represent to defend and protect our public services.
We would like to remind you of a quote by Brian Robertson, a local activist in this community for many years. The quote comes from ‘Never Give Up’, a publication on the history of activism in North Edinburgh, which he worked on just before he died:
“There are too many politicians… who think they’ve got the power. We’ve got the power! It’s us who elect them to represent us, not the other way around. I feel politicians forget they’re working for us. They should be listening to what we’ve got to say. There’s not enough folk telling them that.. It’s up to us to tell them what we’re demanding…They’ve got this manifesto and that manifesto, they’ve got THEIR manifesto. Why can’t we have our manifesto? What’s wrong with a people’s manifesto, a community manifesto! Why can’t we? Let’s demand social justice and an end to poverty”
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Anna Hutchison, Power to the People
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