Tuesday 23 June 3 – 6pm, Wednesday 24 June 5 – 8pm
Waterfront Avenue
Tag: consultation
Leading by example: share your views on community leadership
Community Leadership College – a game of two halves!
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard played his last game in front of his beloved Kop at the weekend. ‘Legend’ is an overused word, but in a football mad city, Liverpool-born and bred Gerrard personifies the word. Gifted, determined, he’s a giant who leads by example, inspiring and motivating those around him to give every last ounce for the cause.
What’s Stevie G got to do with Muirhouse and West Pilton? Well it’s not so much Gerrard the sporting hero, it’s his leadership qualities we’re interested in – and are the same qualities and skills needed by local people to speak up on behalf of their communities?
We’re running a series of ‘conversation cafe’ events across Muirhouse and West Pilton to get your views and opinions on what YOU need to be a more effective community activist, volunteer or campaigner.
We’ve almost reached ‘half-time’ – we’ve held four sessions and have at least four more planned (with more to be added too) so it’s not too late to share your views over coffee and biscuits. It’s a game of two halves!
Come along to any of the following sessons:
Monday 18 May: West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, 4 – 6pm
Thursday 21 May: North Edinburgh Arts, 2 – 4pm
Monday 25 May: North Edinburgh Arts, 11am – 1pm
Monday 1 June: West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, 4 – 6pm.
It would be great to see you!
For further information email: Comlc2015@outlook.com
Holyrood comes to Craigmillar!
Jack Kane Centre to host Scottish Parliament Day
People living in Craigmillar are being asked how changes to the benefits system have affected them as the Scottish Parliament visits the regeneration area on the south east side of the city tomorrow (Monday 18 May).
Holyrood’s Parliament Day initiative, introduced by the Presiding Officer, Rt Hon Tricia Marwick MSP, aims to take the Parliament out into communities around Scotland, encouraging local people to take an interest in and engage directly with the Parliament and its work.
The Welfare Reform Committee, which was set up to examine the impact of changes to benefits and welfare introduced by the UK Government, will hold a ‘Your Say’ session from 2 – 4.30pm.
Members of the local communities, including those from Craigmillar, Niddrie and Portobello are invited to come along and get involved.
In the evening, local people are also invited to a relaxed, informal Q&A session at 5:30pm, hosted by the Presiding Officer, where they can quiz MSPs about how their Parliament works for them. MSPs Gavin Brown, Kezia Dugdale and Kenny MacAskill will also be in attendance.
The Presiding Officer said: “We know that the people of Scotland want to be involved in the political process and that is why the Parliament is going out across Scotland and right into our communities.
“I would like to encourage as many people as possible to join us at the Jack Kane Centre. Together with my fellow MSPs we are looking forward to hearing about what matters to local people.”
Committee Convener Michael McMahon MSP said: “The Welfare Reform Committee was set up to examine the welfare reform programme and its impact on Scotland. Our research has shown Portobello/ Craigmillar to be the worst hit area of Edinburgh in terms of the welfare changes.
“Our Committee has put personal experiences at the heart of our work and we want to sit down with local people who have been affected by or are worried about changes to the benefits system.”
Welfare Reform Committee: ‘Your Say’ Informal Meeting
- Jack Kane Community Centre, 208 Niddrie Mains Road
- From 2- 4:30pm
- Free entry, free refreshments
Local residents are encouraged to come along and talk to MSPs and others in an informal, welcoming setting about the changes to benefits that matter to you.
Public Meeting with the Presiding Officer and local MSPs
- Jack Kane Community Centre, 208 Niddrie Mains Road
- 5:30pm
- Free entry, free refreshments
- Q&A session with MSPs
For more information, visit www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentdays
Have your say on Drylaw Telford’s green spaces
Nature in your Neighbourhood: see what’s being planned
Drylaw Telford Community Council has initiated a consultation on the area’s green spaces.
The city council has recently signed up to Edinburgh Living Landscape, a partnership project that will ‘create, restore and connect green areas of the city to make attractive and biodiverse landscapes’ (see below).
EdinburghLivingLandscape_exec_summary2
Drylaw Telford CC chairman Alex Dale said: “As a community council we have been asked to consult residents on the open green spaces and let them know what the city council’s Parks & Greenspace team plan to do in the local area.
“In Drylaw they are proposing ‘relaxed mowing’ of some highlighted areas: this means that they will leave these areas to allow grass to grow, only mowing a perimeter border. On bigger areas, they also propose regular cuts where there is a desired path line.
“If there is community support, the project planners will to look at creating areas of wild flower meadows in the future on some of these area. To that end we will have display boards in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre from 11th May until the 25th, and we hope local folk will come and have a look and comment on the proposals.”
DTCC Notice on Living Landscapes (2)
CEC Living Landscapes project www.edinburgh.gov.uk/livinglandscape
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20064/parks_and_green_spaces/1160/edinburgh_living_landscape
An inconvenience truth
North Edinburgh to loo-se public lavatories?
Toilets at Granton Square and Canonmills are among a dozen public conveniences earmarked for possible closure by the city council. Local residents are being encouraged to take part in a survey to have their say about the closures.
The Council decided in 2011 to reduce the funding of public conveniences in order to make budget savings of £300,000. It’s believed that around ten public toilets must close in order to achieve these savings.
A list of twelve facilities has been identified for closure, based on criteria such as usage, accessibility and condition:
· London Road
· Tollcross
· St John’s Road
· Canaan Lane
· Middle Meadow Walk
· Joppa
· Hawes Pier, South Queensferry
· Granton Square
· Ardmillan
· Currie
· Canonmills
· Juniper Green
Members of the public are being asked for their feedback on how these potential closures would impact on them individually and their communities – this will help the Council to make the final decision about which public conveniences to close.
Residents can now take part in the online survey which will run until Monday 25 May.
There are currently more than 60 publicly accessible toilets across the city and a community toilets scheme is currently under consideration to further improve provision.
Listening to young people in North Edinburgh
North Neighbourhood Partnership is taking forward the Youth Talk initative as part of ‘Engaging Young People’ priority identified in both Inverleith and Forth Neighourhood Partnerships’ community plans. Youth Talk, originally developed in Liberton/Gilmerton where it was well-received, gives young people an opportunity to talk about facilities, activities and services in their local area.
It has now been launched in the Craigroyston Community High School, Royal High School and Broughton High School, where pupils were asked to vote/rate their local services. The results will be collated after the Easter break and the young people will then be gathered to map out their suggestions and discuss these in more detail.
It is intended that the outcome of the Youth Talk initiative will inform future service development and third sector commissioning. For more information contact info@totalcraigroyston.co.uk or scott.donkin@edinburgh.gov.uk
Police Scotland – Your Say, Your Way event
Have your say on making Police Scotland service centres work for you
Age Scotland has been contacted recently with information about events that Police Scotland are hosting across Scotland. The purpose of these events is to engage with the community to talk about contacting the Police through their call centres. They want to know what barriers there are and how we can improve things for everyone.
The main focus of the event is for people with communication needs that prevent them having equal access – for example:
· British Sign Language users
· people who are hard of hearing
· people without speech or who have issues with their speech
· people for whom English is not their first language
· people who have a physical disability that causes issues when using the phone / email systems to contact the police
· people with learning disabilities
· people with mental health issues
(Please note these are only some examples)
The Edinburgh event will take place on Monday 2 March (see poster, below) at Norton Park from 11am – 4pm.
Sorry for the short notice on this. Please can you circulate this invite to all your contacts / service users / staff and encourage them to attend.
This is a great opportunity for them to have their say on the way they prefer to communicate with Police Scotland both in an emergency and non-emergency situation.
There are a limited number of spaces at each venue please can you encourage people to book now to ensure their space is secured.
If you have any questions about the events please contact :
Constable Stephanie Rose A462
National Safer Communities, Equality and Diversity
Scottish Crime Campus
Craignethan Drive, Gartcosh G69 8AE
01236 814710
Laura Dunkel
AGE Scotland,
Community Development Officer (Edinburgh and Lothians)
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.
Granton & District CC to meet 26 January
Please note that the next meeting of the Granton & District Community Council will take place on Monday 26th January at Royston & Wardieburn Community Centre at 7.00 pm.
Agenda: CCAgenda _Jan2015
Various items will be discussed:
- Update on the cuts
- Granton Harbour Development
- Waterfront Development
- 20 mph campaign.
Hope to see you there.
Dave Macnab,
Secretary, Granton and District Community Council
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/
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