Edinburgh Northern and Leith Our People make the Party
Western Harbour
The Planning Committee approved a revised master plan for Western Harbour which aims to complete the development. The plans, including Forth Ports’ detailed document, can be found here:
Western Harbour Revised Design Framework
Citadel Youth Centre
Citadel held their AGM in the Centre on 24th October. As well as a chance to celebrate some of the great work they do it also saw an important change with Citadel agreeing to become a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (“SCIO” for short). This is to enable them to source other funding to allow the good work to continue.
This AGM is always a highlight of the work I do and, for me, this year the feedback to the AGM from members of the Intergenerational Cafe (which meets on Fridays) was moving.
Michelin Star chef Tom Kitchin took time out of a busy night’s work (whilst also keeping an eye on the Liverpool score) to tell the AGM why Citadel was important to him and why he ran, for the first and last time, the Edinburgh Marathon – raising over £11,000 for Citadel funds. Inspiring!
Mary Moriarty
Various Leith worthies held a surprise 80th birthday party at Leith Dockers Club for Mary Moriarty to whom some refer (or is that defer?) to as the ‘Queen of Leith’. Rather brilliantly Leith Festival gave her a present of a leopard skin trim high-viz jacket and gold litter picker for her annual pick on Gala Day at Leith Festival next year. Second Saturday in June seeing as you asked.
Governance Risk and Best Value – Health and Social Care
I raised a series of questions in committee expressing concern that the budget for Health and Social Care appeared to be out of control. I also pointed out that meetings timetabled to act on these concerns had not been held which in itself raised a question about how this would be tackled. More can be found here:-
Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership – Internal Audit Update Report.
This problem is not unique to Edinburgh. The need to fully fund this budget, which is under pressure from demography, has been recognised by Audit Scotland but is yet to be addressed by the Scottish Government. This will be an issue for this year and next year’s budget.
Full Council
Once again I asked the Council Leader to put Edinburgh first and demand the resources and power that Edinburgh needs to deliver its services. Once again Westminster was blamed and any criticism of Holyrood’s role in Edinburgh’s austerity was avoided.
This debate also spilled into the opinion columns and letters page for several editions of the Evening News. Quite a few have said to myself and others that they were unaware that Holyrood was passing on bigger cuts of 9.1% to councils than the 1.8% it received from Westminster.