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.
Fringe operators, tree protections and private profit
During this year’s Fringe festival one private operator “Spiegeltent International” failed to apply for planning permission before erecting structures in St Andrew’s Square. These structures were positioned in a way which harmed the roots of the well-established trees in the park and in contravention with Council policy. As somebody who values the importance of trees in our public spaces, I was horrified that a private company could blatantly ignore such policies – which are there for the public good – in pursuit of their own private profit. I brought a motion to August’s Full Council meeting highlighting these concerns. Whilst my motion was not accepted in full, as some Councillors argued that the Council shouldn’t be punishing companies who act in such a way (!!), the Council did agree to receive a report looking at how the Council currently engages with operators in good time before the Festival season to avoid such situations from arising in the future. You can read more about this issue here.
Supporting Marchmont Neighbours and local traffic improvements
I have been pleased to support the community group “Marchmont Neighbours” with their plans to make the streets in Marchmont safer for children and young people, as well as anyone walking, wheeling or cycling. Following discussions with the group last year, I was pleased to support them to apply for funding under the Council’s Local Traffic Improvement Programme. In March, we were very excited to see that their application – to widen the pavements at junctions on Spottiswoode Road, Spottiswoode Street and Thirlestane Road – was approved, making the local environment safer for pedestrians. This month I brought together the group and Council officers to review the detailed drawings and we hope to see spades in the ground in the not-too-distant future. Keep an eye out for further updates!
Investment for Bruntsfield Links playpark
Several residents have been concerned about the state of the playpark on Bruntsfield Links where multiple pieces of play equipment have been removed over the past year due to safety concerns. Alongside fellow ward Councillor Marie-Clair Munro, I scheduled an onsite meeting with council officers and Friends of the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links to request funding be made available for replacement equipment and to ensure that this meets the approval of local residents. In the meeting we had agreement that the Council will set aside funding for replacement equipment, hopefully sometime next Spring.
Tourist Tax spending on accessibility measures
During a workshop designed to review proposed spending of Edinburgh’s forthcoming Transient Visitor Levy (or Tourist Tax) I was pleased to secure agreement from other Councillors and Council officers to see detailed proposals developed to focus some of the spending under the “destination and visitor management” theme on improving accessibility for disabled people across venues and cultural institutions in the city. I think it’s important that spending from the tourist tax benefits everyone – we have so much to offer as a city yet lots of our attractions are not accessible to people. This funding – hopefully taken forward in the final decision in December – will go some way to addressing this need.
Arms testing on the Braid Hills
After knockbacks in previous months, I’m delighted that the Council finally agreed to ban testing of equipment by arms company Leonardo in Council parks and greenspaces. Over the past year, my research uncovered that the Council has been permitting the testing of equipment in our parks by Leonardo since 2011 – in my view, this has always been wholly inappropriate but even more so now when we know that equipment tested in Edinburgh is being used in the appalling genocide taking place in Palestine right now. After my previous attempts to convince Councillors at committee to put a stop to this, Councillors at the Culture and Communities committee in August finally agreed to amend the Council’s park management rules to specify that no such testing should ever be allowed. I want to say a huge thank you to the many residents who have written to me on this subject, as well as the ‘Friends of Braid Hills’ and the ‘Campaign Against the Arms Trade’ for all their support.
Suspension of Council housing allocations
Due to the city’s homelessness crisis, the Council has temporarily suspended Council housing allocations for most people. At our August committee meeting it was proposed by some Councillors to suspend the allocations until 2027. This is a complicated topic and, though there are benefits to the suspension and the intervention is working to bring down the number of people rough sleeping in the city, there are disbenefits for people waiting on housing lists. Because of this, I proposed to suspend the allocations only until December when this will be up for review again. Pleasingly, this position won the support of other parties. You can read more about this here.