Citizens have their say on council budget

Five-fold increase in public response to budget proposals – but only 3500 take the opportunity to have their say

es more responses than last year have been received through the City of Edinburgouncil’s budget engagement and consultation exercise.

The results are detailed in a report which will be considered by the Finance and Resources Committee on Tuesday, 3 February. The Council received comments on topics such as allotments, early years and adult education, Edinburgh Leisure, library opening hours, public toilets, homelessness and third party grants.

For the first time the Council used a new online tool enabling residents to have their say on how the Capital invests and saves over the next three years.e report includes feedback from around 3,525 Edinburgh residents, key stakeholders and local businesses including 1,719 people who used the online planner.

The city’s population is around 490,000.

The Council also received 782 telephone calls, emails and letters,145 budget leaflets were returned and 524 comments were made through social media.

A budget question time event was also attended by over 40 people, viewed by 200 people on the live webcast and watched another 862 times using the archive.

In order to meaningfully engage with a larger and more diverse group, the online planner allowed the Council to show where it expects to incur costs in 2017/18, to demonstrate the impacts of increasing or decreasing spending in all of its services, and to give respondents the opportunity to express what they feel the Council’s priorities should be. Impacts shown in the planner were indicative of what might happen as a result of budget changes. The Council also asked for public views on this year’s 2015/16 budget proposals.

Cllr Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resource Committee, said: “I would like to thank the thousands of residents and businesses who took part in this open and democratic 11-week engagement and consultation process. A broad range of channels were used to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to have their say as an individual and or as a group to influence how the Council should invest and save money.

“The Council received five times more feedback through this year’s budget engagement and consultation than last year. The online planner was extremely successful and we ensured it was promoted to all age groups and people from all walks of life to help us understand more fully where Edinburgh residents think Council money should be invested and saved. We will be taking this success and working with people right through the year to develop a more participatory process throughout the city.

“The comments and the results of the budget planner are now being carefully considered along with all the other feedback we received. This will help us to make the right decisions for our residents now and in the future when setting our budget. I would encourage people to watch councillors making these important decisions for the city live, via our website, or catch up afterwards on the webcast archive.”

The budget for 2015/16 will be set at a meeting, which will be webcast, on Thursday 12 February.

Tell George Osborne what he can do with his Budget!

Did you have your say on the city council’s budget proposals? Have you got the taste for balancing the books? Well, you now have the opportunity to give Chancellor George Osborne some timely Budget advice. Read on …

What would you like to see in Budget 2015?

The government is seeking your views on what you would like to see in Budget 2015, which will take place on Wednesday 18 March.

The government encourages open and transparent policy-making, and welcomes original and innovative ideas. Your views will be considered by HM Treasury as part of the policy-making process.

Please submit your representation by filling in our short survey.

If you would prefer to submit your representation as a file attachment, please email budget.representations@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

For information on the correct procedure for submitting your representation, please view the guidance.

To allow for full consideration in advance of the Budget, any submission should be sent to HM Treasury by Friday 13 February

Follow HM Treasury on Twitter for all of our latest news and Budget coverage.

More money for Scotland’s health boards

NHS in Scotland to receive additional £65 million

The Scottish Government has today announced that an extra £65m will be made available to NHS in the next financial year. The funding boost for 2015/16 will ensure that all health boards will receive uplifts next year which are at least 1% above the rate of inflation.

This will bring all health boards to within one per cent of parity under the NHS funding formula, NRAC, a year earlier than planned.

Health Secretary Shona Robison (pictured above) said the funding increase demonstrates the Scottish Government’s commitment to protecting the NHS. She said: “This Government has not only protected the NHS budget, but increased it.

“Our NHS services faces challenges as a result of the increase in patients, with more complex illnesses, and the rising costs of expensive new drugs.

“This £65m additional investment increases the resources available to health boards will help alleviate these pressures and ensure our NHS can continue to deliver effective and sustainable care to all patients across Scotland.”

“We’re clear that all patients in Scotland should be treated as quickly and as effectively as possible, with the right care, in the right place, at the right time. With this increase in funding, health boards are being given more support to achieve this.

“Despite Scotland’s fiscal resource budget being slashed in real terms by 10 per cent by Westminster since 2010, we’ve increased the health resource budget by 4.6 per cent in real terms.”

Council makes BOLD case for ‘transformation and cost savings’

Restructure aims to deliver a ‘leaner, more agile council’

Detailed proposals have been unveiled to make Council services more efficient and customer focused, while addressing a budget gap of £67 million over the next three years.

As one of fastest growing local authority areas in Scotland, Edinburgh is facing an ever increasing demand for Council services, while the funds available to meet this demand are set to stay the same over the next few years.

The proposals follow a blueprint for the future organisation of the Council which was agreed in December 2014, subject to consultation. This report highlighted key areas where future cost savings and service improvements could be achieved. They included: improved neighbourhood and locality working; a more efficient corporate centre; improvements to the way the Council interacts with residents (Channel Shift); working with third sector partnerships and managing Council property effectively (property rationalisation).

The Council has an agreed pledge of no compulsory redundancies and it is envisaged that some reduction in roles will be addressed through natural turnover of staff.

The Council will also look to improve its approach to how staff are redeployed across different service areas, engaging and consulting with employees and Trades Unions as appropriate during this process.

Finance Convener, Councillor Alasdair Rankin (pictured above), said: “The Council needs to take significant steps to tackle the financial challenges it faces as demand for our services continues to increase. At the same time, we want to make services for residents more efficient and effective.

“We set the direction of travel last month when Council agreed proposals for a new organisational structure, enabling more effective decision making at neighbourhood level and improved partnership working with third sector organisations. We are now considering detailed proposals around this and how we plan to improve the way we interact with residents.

“We believe these priority areas for change will enable us to achieve service improvements as well as cost savings. Of course change on this scale brings challenges but we need to take decisive action now to meet our targets and create a stronger, leaner, more agile Council to better serve the people of Edinburgh.”

The latest proposals will be considered by the Finance and Resources Committee on Thursday 15 January. Further detail on proposals around Council property and workforce controls will be provided in the Spring.

Edinburgh TUC urges city council to demand extra powers

Edinburgh Trade Union Council has urged the City of Edinburgh Council to demand extra powers and additional finance from the Scottish Government. Responding to the city’s budget consultation, Edinburgh TUC secretary Des Loughney said city politicians of all parties should lead and promote a campaign to retain good quality public services.

Statement from Edinburgh Trade Union Council about proposed draft Council Budget 2015/2016

Council Income 2015/2016
The Council states that its income from Council Tax will be £209m and the income from the Scottish Government and rates will be £731m. The income from the latter sources is
£12m less than the previous year. There has been no allowance from these sources for an increase due to inflationary costs. Such an allowance would be around £50m. Although we have been told that the Scottish Government would compensate local authorities for the Council Tax freeze there is no evidence that this is the case in 2015/2016.

The total savings/cuts that the Council is proposing to make is £22m. If the Scottish Government permitted the Council to increase the Council Tax by 5% and if it increased
rates similarly then the £22m reduction would not be necessary. It is therefore well within the powers of the Scottish Parliament to fund/allow local authorities to avoid these cuts.

Looking further ahead the Scottish Parliament could pass legislation to allow local authorities to generate funds which would not be paid by citizens of the City. One of the
ways would be a hotel bedroom tax which is already operated by some European cities. At a level of £2 to £5 per night per adult the tax would be easy to collect and generate significant amounts. The income could be used specifically to support tourist services. This would, however, release resources for other services. It is our understanding, from what experts state, that a tax at the level specified would have no impact on the number of tourists coming to Edinburgh,

Another possible tax is the so called supermarket tax. Supermarkets make considerable profits from the purchases of the people of Edinburgh. These profits do not presently
remain in the city. We think that it is only right and just that in the age of austerity that Scottish local authorities have the power to impose a levy on local supermarket profits and
that this money is earmarked to tackle poverty and inequality in the city.

Comment: the cuts are unnecessary – the money can easily be found if there was the political will of the Scottish Government. The Council must lobby the Scottish Government to provide more money or to allow the Council to generate more money.

The Council must not be fobbed off by the Scottish Government saying that the problem is solely due to Westminster cuts. This is not true. We believe that there would be political support from the public for more money if the context was properly explained.

Additional Income 2015/2016

We believe that the Council’s description of its income and expenditure neglects describing the additional income that is necessary for the Council to honour its policy commitments
regarding poverty and inequality.

In the area of Social Care the Council requires £7.445m
more than it is budgeting for in order to provide recipients with the Social Care they require, at the current quality of service. If the Council was to tackle in-work poverty of
those voluntary and private sector workers who provide Social Care it would need an additional £15m. This would ensure that all people providing Social Care were employed on basic local authority terms and conditions.

Comment: the Council should maintain its policy of reducing poverty and inequality. It should tackle in-work poverty.

Expenditure 2015/2016

The Council’s description of possible savings/ cuts did not provide an impact assessment which the public, never mind trade unions, required to make a proper judgement. There is
no useful information on loss of jobs, loss of wages, loss of job security, impact on in work poverty, impact on the Council’s general anti poverty strategy, and impact on equality or
impact on quality of services.

The Council does not describe, for example, the increase in expenditure that is required to meet increasing demand for social care services. Money needs to be made available for
an increasing volume of demand but also, as recommended by the Care Commission and SSSC, to employ staff on reasonable terms and conditions. Some sources have estimated that the Council may need over £15m to do this in 2015/2016 but this is not mentioned or commented on.

An overall assessment of the savings proposed seems to suggest that the ‘third sector’ will be required to save £4m directly through cuts in grants although other savings may be
required indirectly. £4m is equivalent to about 200 full time jobs but it is impossible to say how many real jobs are under threat or whether savings will be achieved by wage freezes
or cuts in other terms and conditions. There will not necessarily be forced closures of whole organisations.

The biggest element in the savings/cuts package is ‘workforce savings’ referring to the Council’s own staff. This seems to total some £6.6m. The main element of this is cutting
sickness absence. From a trade union point of view we think it is glib to state that sickness absence can be cut without a cost to staff morale, to having a disability friendly workplace
or a workplace where you can work until you retire. After cutting sickness absence for years the City Council as an employer now mean making working life very difficult for
those who are disabled or relatively old (that is 50+).

Comment: If the Council expected us to make a considered comments on their draft budget they needed to supply us with a lot more information including a detailed impact assessment in relation to Council anti poverty and equality policies.

The purpose of an equality impact assessment has been defined as:

‘Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a systematic and evidence based process which verifies that the Council’s policies and practices are equality proof and not discriminatory.’

We suspect that some of the savings/cuts proposed in the Council’s draft budget will have a negative and discriminatory effect on older people, women and disabled people.

Our overall recommendation and plea to the Council is that its Budget Meeting on 12/2/15 consider a motion to the Scottish Government demanding extra powers and additional finance to render unfair and counter-productive cuts and savings unnecessary.

The Council must call on all Edinburgh MSPs and MPs to support its motion regardless of political party. The Council should convene a civic conference and ask a range of community organisations to back its demand for extra resources.

The Council should lead a campaign to make sure we keep the services we need for a decent quality of life. The Council should actively promote good public services whether provided directly by the Council or indirectly by subcontracting.

Des Loughney
Secretary, Edinburgh TUC

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

WIG call public meeting to debate council budget crisis

Local campaigners the Womens Internation Group (WIG) are to hold a public meeting to discuss the city council’s budget crisis. The event will take place in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre tomorrow (Tuesday 9 December) at 6.30pm. All welcome.

Council Cancels Christmas flyers 4

Full details of the event will follow when we have them, but here’s some background to where we are and why the local meeting has been called:

Last week public spending watchdog the Accounts Commission expressed concern over Edinburgh’s budget control – the city council must find savings of of £138m by 2017.

The Accounts Commission said Edinburgh needs to develop a comprehensive strategy for managing its staff – and on Friday it was revealed that city councillors are to discuss radical new proposals for service provision at Thursday’s full council meeting.

The council’s last major internal reorganisation in the 2000s saw the creation of ‘super departments’ – Education and Social Work were merged to become Children and Families, while roads and pavements, environmental services, housing, refuse collection and trading standards all became part of the remit of a huge new Services for Communities department.

As well as delivering a ‘joined-up’ approach, those new structures were introduced to devolve more power and decision-making to front-line staff to address new community planning arrangements.

Now, following a comprehensive review and facing severe budget pressure, Chief Executive Sue Bruce has produced a new blueprint to restructure the Council’s operations and it’s thought that hundreds of middle manager posts could be under threat as part of the proposed reorganisation.

Councillors will debate the proposals on Thursday before they go out to consultation with unions – the council currently operates a policy of no compulsory redundancies.

Council Leader Councillor Andrew Burns said: “It’s essential that we transform how we deliver council services to an ever growing number of residents, focusing more on their priorities while addressing the significant financial challenges we face.

“A further report from the Chief Executive makes the case for delivering services through four ‘localities’, or neighbourhoods, giving front-line staff the ability to make decisions more suited to the local community and their particular needs. It also outlines a proposal for creating a ‘Business and Customer Services’ corporate centre which would provide the necessary guidance and support.

“Councillors will be asked to select one from three models outlined in the report, following which consultation with staff, Trades Unions and relevant partners will begin.”

Councillor Burns also urged citizens to have their say on Edinburgh’s budget. He said: “Over the past two months, we’ve been inviting views on how we invest and save money. The consultation has attracted significant attention, with over 1,400 people completing our budget planner online, and a further 300 submitting comments by post and email. This is already more than four times the number of responses we received last year.

“Last week, attention turned to our Question Time event, giving members of the public the opportunity to quiz our panel of senior councillors on the budget proposals that mattered to them. It was a lively debate with the Chair, Evening News editor Frank O’Donnell, taking contributions from the floor and from those watching at home. Archive footage of the event is available to view on our website.

“Please take the time to have your say on the proposals, if you haven’t already. The consultation period runs until 19 December, and we will consider all feedback prior to setting the final 2015/16 Budget in February.”

Key_Facts_and_Figures_2014_2015

For better or worse? Mixed views on Autumn Statement

Predictably mixed opinions over the Westminster government’s Autumn Statement yesterday. Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael says Scotland is strengthened by the announcements but the Holyrood government says Scotland’s poor will pay the price for further austerity measures.

The Scottish Government will benefit from additional funding of £213 million through to 2015-16 as a result of spending decisions taken by the UK Government at this Autumn Statement, bringing the total amount of additional spending power granted to the Scottish Government since 2010 to over £2.3 billion.

That’s good news for Scotland, said Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael MP. Speaking after the Chancellor’s announcement, Mr Carmichael said: “This Autumn Statement sets out the next steps in the UK Government’s long term economic plan to secure a sustained recovery and a more resilient economy. By backing businesses, helping more people into work and supporting families in communities across the country Scotland is benefitting from the action we are taking to help our economy grow.

“These measures will give the Scottish Government an extra £213 million of spending, taking the total of additional spending power to over £2.3 billion since we came to office. This means they can crack on and spend more money such as on funding for the NHS, more childcare places or more funding for schools or colleges.

“Scotland chose to retain a shared currency, pensions, single market and the economic stability and security that comes from being part of the UK. With more funding provided to the Scottish Government today and more powers and great responsibility for the Scottish Parliament on the way, Scotland is strengthened by today’s Autumn Statement.”

Not so, according to Holyrood’s Finance Secretary John Swinney. The Deputy First Minister said today that Scotland is continuing to pay the price of UK Government’s austerity agenda .

In his autumn budget address Chancellor George Osborne admitted to the House of Commons that the Government had missed key targets on economic recovery. In the last substantial finance statement before next year’s General Election, the Chancellor confirmed that his forecasts on deficit reduction were off target, with borrowing higher and tax revenues lower than expected. More austerity, to ensure future prosperity, was the government message.

Finance Secretary John Swinney warned that the Chancellor’s decisions were continuing to hit the poorest in our society hardest with the Treasury confirming that those in the lowest 20% will face some of the hardest impacts of the austerity plan.

The majority of spending announcements simply recycle existing money meaning the Scottish Government will receive around £200m in Barnett consequentials. This makes up only 8% of the £2.7bn of real terms cuts that have been removed from Scotland’s budget since 2010 and have taken 25% of Scotland’s capital budget.

Commenting on the Autumn budget statement, John Swinney said: “The Scottish Government is focused on securing economic growth, tackling inequality and protecting our public services. The Chancellor’s budget fails to pass the test on all of these measures.

“Today’s budget shows the failure of the UK Government’s austerity policy and it is clear that we in Scotland are paying the price. In 2010 the Chancellor embarked on his austerity programme and instead of putting the finances on a sound footing we are seeing borrowing this year of over £50bn higher than expected, lower tax revenues and austerity extended by atleast a further two years.

“Just last week I wrote to the UK Government to ask them to use the Autumn statement as an opportunity to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are not only sustained but are made accessible to all. The Chancellor has not listened.

“The lowest earning households in Scotland will be among the hardest hit by the UK Government cuts.

“And while the Chancellor gives Northern Ireland the power to cut corporation tax his government is continuing to block the job creating powers Scotland needs.

Commenting on the Barnett consequentials which will come to Scotland as a result of today’s announcements, the Finance Secretary said: “Additional spending for Scotland is always welcome but the consequentials of around £200m we have received today cannot compensate for the £2.7bn of real terms cuts we have faced since 2010. And with a further £25bn of cuts in the future the Westminster Government is locking Scotland into austerity against our wishes.

“The £125m of consequentials we have received from frontline NHS spending in England will be passed to Scotland’s NHS as they have been in every year of this parliament.”

Disability supporters urged to respond to Edinburgh's budget consultation

Local Disabled People’s Organisation Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living (LCiL) has responded to the City of Edinburgh Council’s (CEC) budget consultation and is encouraging other organisations and individuals to do the same.

CEC budget consultation 2015-16-Nov. 14

The organisation’s full response (see above) , acknowledges the financial pressure under which local authorities are operating but highlights the risks associated with implementing savings proposals which directly impact disabled people, people with long term conditions or older people and/or the organisations supporting them.

Of the council’s 69 savings proposals 25 directly target these services, and taken together represent 32% of the total of the overall suggested savings – almost ONE THIRD.

LCiL argues that In a tough financial environment disabled people, people with long term conditions and older people are the first ones to feel the impact on their quality of life and on their ability to remain active and visible in their community. Targeting cuts to the very services that support them to live independently, and to remain members of their communities, would just lead to more exclusion and marginalisation, and increase the gap between those who have and who have not.

LCiL’s Chief Executive Florence Garabedian said: “There is still time to change the views of those who have proposed these savings and for CEC to explore the negative consequences which these could have on disabled people – people with long term conditions and older people.

“We urge those who are part of this constituency, and their supporters, to make sure their voices are heard before the consultation ends on 19 December.”

The City of Edinburgh Council has published a range of materials about the budget consultation which you can access on the Consultation and Responses Section of the E-library, including:

For further details you can access information on their website at: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/budget

For an overview of the budget proposals visit here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20200/budget_and_finance/1136/budget_proposals_for_2015_2016

Deadline for responses is: 19 December 2014.

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