Happy new year from your favourite Edinburgh Councillor Group! Appreciate you will be reading this more likely in February, but the sentiment still stands. We hope everyone has had a peaceful and positive start to the year.
Greens have been busy in council and campaigning mode, noting that there are less than 100 days til the Holyrood election. On the hyper-local level, we have been developing and starting our Candidate Development Programme for the 2027 council elections. Many thanks to all who have come along and input already!
If you want more information on what it means to be a Green councillor or have a chat with one of us ahead of selection discussions let us know by email: council2027.edin@scottishgreens.org.uk
Councillor highlights from the month
Asked to pick one highlight from the month, our councillors chose:
Alex Staniforth
In addition to continuing work on the budget, at Finance and Resources committee Alex successfully passed a motion making the council’s response to the consultation on council tax changes more progressive for renters in high cost areas of Scotland as well as making it clear Edinburgh still wants to see council tax scrapped and replaced with a more progressive system of local taxation.
Alys Mumford
Alys has been working with various community groups in her ward to help them submit projects to the Local Traffic Improvement Plan – improving accessibility, sorting out active travel routes, and greening community spaces.
Ben Parker
This month Ben has been meeting with all different stakeholders such as Edinburgh Tenants Federation, Living Rent and SHAPE to gather thoughts about the council’s budget. Excitingly, the draft budget features major investment in housing and homelessness, in a large part thanks to changes to the law governing how social housing is funded which Ben has been campaigning on for the past two years – it’s exciting to see many years hard work coming together!
Chas Booth
Chas has been working with local residents and council officers from waste, parking, housing and active travel to try to find a resolution to the recurring theft and vandalism of the bollard at Tolbooth Wynd which is an important part of the Leith low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) and also forms part of quiet route 10, part of the council’s walking and cycling network.
Claire Miller
During January Claire has had a chance to spend more time on individual residents casework, such as shared roof repairs for council tenants, support for neighbours of holiday homes, changes to bus stops, and internet connectivity in the Old Town.
Dan Heap
Dan has been working on his proposals for a public diner, to tackle food insecurity and promote community cohesion. He met representatives from Nourish, who are campaigning for the diners, to discuss how to get a pilot scheme funded. He also met council officers to discuss how a model in Edinburgh might work. This idea now has full officer support and there is a clear plan, but the challenge now is to find the money to pay for it.
Jule Bandel
Jule has been taking time off due to illness.
Kayleigh O’Neill
Kayleigh has had focus on Granton Waterfront improvements and helping new residents in the area access council resources that they need. She has also been equally dreading and looking forward to budget discussions on transport where they hope to win cross party support in February.
Steve Burgess
At a busy Education Committee this month, Steve won agreement for three Green proposals – ensuring that Education officers will report back to committee on the council’s new Children’s Mental Health Framework and on the leadership around children’s social work services following a mixed inspection report from the Care Inspectorate. Committee also agreed to emphasise that officers should consult committee if they are taking an operational decision likely to be ‘politically controversial’ as in the recent redesign of services for children with additional support needs and of hospital social work.
Susan Rae
Finally Leith Chooses voting day took place on Saturday 24th January and as usual was very heavy on Green volunteers and councillors. Candidate Kate Nevens spent time with over 500 Leithers who packed the hall and approx 1400 votes were cast. Huge thanks Greens. Your support and work has ensured we have a really strong voice shaping the participatory budgeting element of the visitor levy.
Green-aligned independent councillor, Ross McKenzie
Asked to pick one highlight from the month, Ross chose:
Ross was delighted to see work begin on long-awaited pavement improvements in Dalry as part of a road resurfacing project. Over the coming months, ‘continuous footways’ will be constructed at the junctions of Dalry Road and some of its side-streets. Without pressure from Green councillors, the roads would’ve been resurfaced without improvements for walkers and wheelers, so this project is a positive sign that our policy changes are having an impact on the ground.
Committee updates
Committee updates and other things to look out for in the coming month.
Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work
Ben has continued to push the council on implementing rent controls. At the next Housing Committee meeting, there will be a proposal to establish a working group to focus on how the council is going to meet new requirements from the Housing Act, and Ben will be working out how he can mobilise that group to get rent controls in place as soon as possible.
Finance and Resources
The budget is coming up in February. We intend to present a budget focussed on climate, equality and housing which would make Edinburgh a greener, more progressive city.
Transport and Environment
In January TEC was (somehow) mildly controversial. Chas and Kayleigh brought motions on road safety in Royal Park Terrace / Holyrood Park, teething issues with the VOI Cycle Hire Scheme, and bus journey times. They also scrutinised reports on Visitor Levy transport related funding, recycling rates, anti-social behaviour and much more.
Planning
Alys and Ben brought a motion to the Planning Committee to keep the focus on data centres and see if there are ways that the council can do more to limit their environmental impacts – thanks to all the branch members who have helped us to think about this piece of work!
Climate
The emergency climate summit, which was called as a result of a Green Group amendment, will be held in the first week of February. Greens will be pushing for stronger action on climate mitigation within the council, to ensure the authority is leading by example not dragging its feet.
Equalities
The council’s equality, diversity and inclusion framework is due to be updated early this year and councillors have been reviewing the early drafts which aim to achieve the three outcomes that were agreed last year:
- Council services are easier to access and engage with and the needs of different groups of people are equally considered.
- The council engages with diverse people across the city in ways that are meaningful and helpful to them.
- The council is equipped to make data-driven decisions about equality matters ensuring people are treated fairly and equally