Members of the Power to the People group are calling on local groups and individuals from North Edinburgh to join them at a lobby of the full council meeting on Thursday 21 January to protest against what Unison describe as the “worst cuts in living memory”. Continue reading SOS – Save Our Services!
Forty-five years. Tens of thousands of North Edinburgh children and families, Pilton Retreat has given our community so much. Now, at their hour of need, they desperately need the community’s support: it’s time to give something back …
Pilton Retreat 1970
The late Victor Lindsay while on his rounds working with the Water Board discovered the unused, semi – derelict scout hall on the edge of Ratho.
In 1970, he along with other community activists from play schemes, youth projects, churches and staff from schools agreed to work together to establish a countryside resource for the children and young people of the Greater Pilton area.
Successful negotiation with the farmer and scouts, a payment of either £10.00 or £20.00 was enough to secure the building for Pilton use.
The thrift shop was opened to sell donated goods to raise funds; a wider appeal for funding and loads of voluntary effort meant that the first groups of children and young people from Pilton started staying at the Retreat in the summer of 1971.
Tens of thousands have visited since.
Initially, it was only the building, by mid 70’s some extra land was rented, and ever since improvements to the facility and grounds have been achieved.
What exists today is as a result of the efforts of many people over these 45 years.
Now these achievements and the resource are under real threat.
Council funding may end, solely on the assessment of three unknown council officials’ and a report to Councillors recommending no continued funding.
We ask that our four Forth councillors seek to persuade the Education Children and Families Committee on 11th February that this would be a detrimental decision.
More than 1,600 people so far have signed our e-petition, asking the Councillors to think again.
45 years of continuously improving service and facilities surely must count?
1,500+ children and young people using the facilities every year surely must matter?
If funding ends on 31/3/16, the Board of Pilton Retreat will spend its own reserves to keep the Retreat open till the end of June 2016.
During these three months many children you may know will visit the Retreat.
School residential camps will involve Pirniehall P 4’s, Craigroyston and Forthview P 5’s, St Davids P6’s and Rowanfield P7’s. School day visits include Craigroyston and St Davids nursery classes and Pirniehall P3’s. Two other Edinburgh primary schools for pupils with additional learning needs will hold residential visits. A further 10 Edinburgh school nursery classes will visit for the day.
It seems ironic, even perverse, that the Council might decide to close down these opportunities for the pupils that they should be providing for. Many other community groups, locally and from elsewhere in Edinburgh will also visit in these three short months. They would also lose out in the future.
Please do all you can to help save these services / opportunities for the children, young people and families in Greater Pilton in the future.
Please sign and share our petition. Click on the link below:
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:
“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.
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
North Edinburgh lost two long standing community workers last month when Ian Stewart and Alison Miller were both made redundant from their posts at North Edinburgh Trust, the former Pilton Partnerhsip. Both of them have supported many groups and have been influential on various projects and campaigns over the past 10 years.
North Edinburgh News understands that both were made redundant as a result of the North Edinburgh Trust losing its core Council funding.
Ian and Alison hosted a social gathering at the Prentice Centre prior to leaving their posts.
North Edinburgh News wishes both Ian and Alison all the best for the future.
North Edinburgh Fights Back a local community group campaigning against the cuts in North Edinburgh have organised a public meeting to take place on Tuesday 30th August 2011 from 6.30pm-8.00pm in the North Edinburgh Arts Centre. The group have organised speakers who will talk about the effects of the cuts to the local area.
If you would like more information on this group please search them on Facebook at North Edinburgh Fights Back where you will ind out more about the groups work and also see minutes from their meetings.
You can also visit the groups website at www.northedinburghfightsback.org.uk 
Among the savings have been freeing up building space, changes to contracts, improving council tax collection, reducing energy costs, providing services in a different way and improving absence management.
Despite the savings, city leaders warned that more cuts are on the way.
Councillor Phil Wheeler, the city’s finance leader, said: “The fact that we have done so well only means that finding other efficiencies becomes harder.
“There will be difficult choices to make, but with ongoing pressure on public finances we will need to face those.”
City council officials are currently investigating options for sharing services with other authorities and organisations and are looking at the potential to privatise some services.
Since 2006/07, the city council has saved a total of around £117m.
