A safer, healthier and happier city
Today is the deadline for responses to the city council’s consultation on city centre transformation. Claire Miller sees growing appetite for radical change. Early in 2017 there was a tragic fatality in the city centre. A young woman, Zhi Min Soh, was killed when a bus collided with her during her morning commute. She was…
Celebrating Leith Theatre
This weekend sees Leith Theatre’s first professional stage production in 30 years. Cllr Chas Booth celebrates the Theatre’s success. This summer, Leith Theatre celebrated becoming an Edinburgh International Festival venue for the first time since the 1970s. The “Light up the Shore” series of gigs and performances featured 16 events over 14 nights, across many genres…
Christmas market and trees
Green City Centre councillor Claire Miller updates on the twists and turns of tree loss in East Princes Street Gardens. Last week I set out my views on the loss of 50 trees in Princes Street Gardens. I remain angry at the scale of tree loss and determined to ensure that replacement is in greater…
Treasuring Edinburgh’s trees
Edinburgh is a city of trees. How do we make sure that legacy is protected, asks City Centre’s Green councillor Claire Miller
Council budget: strategy and accountancy
Green councillor Gavin Corbett says budgets need to balance big picture ideas with real open-ness about the future of specific services. At the council’s finance committee yesterday the council agreed to launch a consultation on the budget strategy over the next 4 years. Faced with a gap of over £100 million in funding over that…
City tourism: striking the balance
Another festival has come and gone so it’s now time to strike the right balance between tourism and residents says Alex Staniforth.
Greener festival, greener city
A Green Festival City is a great Festival City, argues Alex Staniforth. Every August Edinburgh welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to its world-famous festivals . Events on this scale will always have their sceptics, but a poll in 2015 showed that 89% of local festivalgoers thought the festivals increased people’s pride in Edinburgh as…
Championing the Union Canal
Gavin Corbett reflects on his first year as Edinburgh’s canal champion. At this week’s meeting of all of Edinburgh’s councillors (23 August) there is a written question from one of the Conservative councillors on the activity of the various “champions” in the city. My understanding is that a full report will be going to all…
Single-use plastics
I am a young green living in Edinburgh, and I am fed up of plastic. I am not the only one. Cllr Burgess and I have been looking at plastic waste in Edinburgh and thinking about what we can do to reduce our city’s plastic waste.
Bridging the housing benefit chasm
Decisions by the UK Government to freeze housing benefit for private tenants fail Edinburgh says Susan Rae
Barrow boy!
Gavin Corbett highlights five lessons from a morning on the street cleaning barrow cart. My regular correspondents will know that I am a bit obsessive about litter. Already in 2018 I’ve organised or taken part in around a dozen community clear-ups. But for a while I have also wanted to get a better insight into…
One Planet Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s Green group of councillors has two new co-convenors Mary Campbell and Chas Booth. Here they set out the green challenges facing the city their ambitions for the years ahead. Edinburgh currently has a three-planet lifestyle. As a whole, the city consumes resources and produces waste at three times the planet’s capacity. That can’t go…
Future of Meadowbank
Tomorrow, Friday 29th June, Edinburgh’s Development Management Committee will consider a proposal which will determine the future of Meadowbank Stadium. Incredibly, it’s taken over a decade to get to this point. Shortly after being elected to the City of Edinburgh Council in 2007, I found myself on a working group of councillors, council officers, sports…
Smoothing the rocky roads
Improving basic roads maintenance should be a higher priority than building new roads and roundabouts argues Chas Booth. The quality of road, pavement and cyclepath surfaces is a problem in Edinburgh. The majority of complaints may come from car drivers but ironically, the impact is felt most acutely by more vulnerable road users. The growing…
Our future schools crunch time
The future of secondary schools in the city will come to a special meeting of Edinburgh’s Education Committee this week. Cllr Mary Campbell explains why the Greens are backing investment in existing schools in the south west of the city and pushing for real progress on new schools elsewhere in Edinburgh. The launch of a…
Re-imagining Redford Barracks
Gavin Corbett argues that MoD withdrawal from Redford Barracks is a major opportunity which the city should seize. The Ministry of Defence announced in 2016 that it planned to pull out of Redford Barracks in the Colinton area of Edinburgh. The scheduled closure date is 2022 [UPDATE: on 1.3.19 this planned closure date is now…
Trams to Leith: let’s get it right
Edinburgh Greens’ transport spokesperson Cllr Chas Booth argues that any tram extension to Newhaven must make life easier for those walking and cycling. On a recent trip to Antwerp in Belgium, I got to experience a high-quality tram system at first hand. It was reliable, efficient and transported a large number of people with no…
School lunches: progress and potential
Mary Campbell welcomes progress on school lunches but says there is an opportunity to go so much further. This week my son will eat the first school lunch he has had in 2018. While he had a few meals when he started Primary 1, he soon asked to stop, preferring packed lunches instead. I will…
Building schools for our communities
Learning from school building programmes of the past is crucial in building for the future, says Mary Campbell. Council priorities come and go over the years but it is hard to imagine a time when schools are not right up there. Of course, what matters is what goes on inside schools and the buildings themselves…
Running Edinburgh: one year on
It is a year since the council elections of May 2017: Green co-convenors Melanie Main and Steve Burgess give a Green perspective on where the SNP-Labour led council stands now. Within hours of the council elections on 5 May 2017, a renewal of the SNP-Labour coalition in the city chambers always seemed the most likely…
Tackling plastic pollution
Edinburgh can lead the way in tackling plastic pollution, argues STEVE BURGESS The final episode of Blue Planet 2 late last year vividly showed the terrible consequences for sea-life of discarded plastic. Since then there’s been a huge public groundswell for action to reduce the use of so-called ‘disposable’, single-use plastics (SUPs). Across the world…
Celebrating Edinburgh’s women
The gender divide is never far away but on International Women’s day, last Thursday, it was just a little more obvious, writes CLAIRE MILLER. By co-incidence last Thursday, I was attending a conference with more than one “manel” – a men-only panel of speakers, and later in the day attending a meeting and being repeatedly…
Green Budget Day
Green Finance spokesperson Cllr Gavin Corbett previews the council budget today. Today is budget day – the single biggest decision the council will take in 2018. At stake is £1 billion of spending on day to day services for 2018-19 plus another £2-300 million of investment over the next 5 years. Edinburgh’s Green councillors believe…
Green Budget 2018: Ambitious for Edinburgh
Green councillor Gavin Corbett sets out the party’s “Ambitious for Edinburgh” budget plans for next year. This is my sixth council budget as lead councillor for the Greens on finance. In the context of £240m worth of reductions since 2012-13, each year the council has had to face difficult choices over where savings need to…
St Margaret’s House – a new future?
Green councillor Alex Staniforth argues that the threat facing Edinburgh Palette at St Margaret’s House at Meadowbank highlights a wider opportunity for provision of space for creative and other enterprises in Edinburgh. St Margaret’s House on London Road has hit the headlines this week, with news that the current owners have agreed a deal with…
Films for juniors
Mary Campbell heralds an outbreak of common sense on baby and carer screenings of films. Any parents with a baby under one will attest to the bliss of places where babies are welcomed with open arms. Cinemas are one such place in recent years with special carer and baby screenings. But there is a catch. …
Green budget for Edinburgh 2018
Edinburgh needs a green budget, argues Gavin Corbett. The council will set its budget on 22 February. It is the single biggest decision the council takes each year, affecting £1.52 billion of spending on day to day services and another £200 million of investment in the city fabric. There is no doubt as to the…
Finding space for Gaelic
How best should Scotland’s capital support Gaelic and Gaelic medium education as part of the education service as a whole? Green councillor Mary Campbell reflects. There is a lively debate in Edinburgh right now about how Gaelic medium education (GME) should be developed. While there has been a standalone Gaelic Primary School (Taobh na…
Nurturing music: the agent of change
Introducing an “agent of change” principle to planning and licensing law would boost live music and protect residents. Alex Staniforth explains. Former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney has been in the news locally and nationally recently calling for the “Agent of Change” principle to be introduced across the UK. He is concerned – as am I…
Happy 2018: the year of young people!
Melanie Main welcomes 2018 as the year of young people. Happy New Year! 2018 has been earmarked as the year of young people. That’s critical for Scotland’s capital – we are a university city, hosting 4 universities and Edinburgh College. Edinburgh’s unique place in the world of arts and culture, and ambition to be the…