It’s not always easy to find time to shout about all the work we are involved in as councillors, and sometimes the job can be quite opaque to members of the public. To try and help demystify just exactly what the job of a councillor is, I’ve decided to start a monthly blog of activities I’ve been involved with. Whilst this won’t be fully comprehensive, I hope it will give a sense of the sorts of projects I’m working on, and just how varied the work can be.
Polwarth pavement project
I have been supporting Merchiston Districts Community Council and their fantastic “Polwarth Pavements Project” which is looking at a complete redesign of the problematic roundabout junction in Polwarth. The Community Council has done lots of brilliant work on this already and I’ve been supporting them to engage with officers to see if we can increase the amount of street greening in the design. There are some challenges relating to space in the street, and a complicated underground network of services which make the inclusion of planting / rain gardens too difficult, but I’m hoping with some creative thinking we can still see some greenery included in the design. There will be a further round of community consultation at the end of the summer so please share your comments! Read more about the project on the Community Council website here.
Empty Homes workshop
The council has recruited two additional “Empty Homes officers” to deal with the empty homes issue across the city. As a member of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee I was involved in a workshop to consider the strategic priorities of the Empty Homes team and invited to give views about what more the council should be doing to support owners to bring empty homes back into use. Also present at the workshop were the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership who shared advice and learnings from other Local Authorities across Scotland. I’m looking forward to seeing how this work develops over the coming months and years — and I’m especially enthusiastic about the programme knowing that it was Green Councillor Gavin Corbett who, many years ago, was involved in setting up an empty homes office in the first instance.
Placing in schools appeals
At this time of year there are lots of school placing appeals where children haven’t been allocated the school of their choice and parents are looking to see if an exceptional placement can be agreed. As part of the process, some Councillors sit on the School Placement Appeals panel to adjudicate whether exceptional places should be awarded. In June I contributed to the panel for a number of schools across the city. As many Councillors will attest to, this experience was quite challenging and provided a real insight into the pressures and challenges facing families and the Council as an education authority.
Additional Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee
An additional Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee meeting had to be scheduled this month because there was too much business to get everything complete in the usual committee cycle in May. The big item on the agenda was the approval of the Council’s new Local Housing Strategy (PDF download).
While Greens were broadly content with the direction of travel that the Local Housing Strategy is moving in, I was pleased to secure agreement to add additional actions into the strategy relating to in-housing Council housing repair works and action to radically reduce second property ownership in the city. As the strategy is implemented over the next year, I’ll be keeping up scrutiny at committee to check that these actions are being realised.
Hosting a student for work experience
This month I was delighted to be joined by a student from Boroughmuir High School on work experience for the week. It was great to be able to show them the City Chambers building, to have them along to committee meetings and briefings with Councillor colleagues and Council officers. Sitting down and answering questions about what it’s like to be a Councillor — and about the importance of the Council in everyone’s day to day life — gave me a new perspective on the role and I hope to be able to host students in the future too.
Arms testing on the Braid Hills
At the beginning of the month I was proud to speak in favour of my motion to ban arms testing in publicly owned spaces. It was disappointing that Councillors representing Labour, The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats chose not to support my motion. You can read more about the issue and my speech from the day in my separate blog post here.
Fountainbridge and Craiglockhart by-election
And finally, the month of June has been busy with canvassing and campaigning for the Fountainbridge and Craiglockhart by-election. I was very pleased to be involved with Q’s campaign to become a local councillor in Fountainbridge and Craiglockhart and, though we were unsuccessful this time around, I know Q will make a fantastic candidate in future elections.