I mentioned the obvious, local anger over the proposed closure of 'Craiglockhart Sports Centre creche' at the Community Council meeting last night ... I also referred to my suspicion that a fair degree of political hypocrisy was permeating the debate, and it transpires my suspicions were well-founded :-(
I've now checked, in detail, what each political Group on the Council proposed for Edinburgh Leisure's 2008/09 Grant. The various positions are as follows:
SNP/Liberal Coalition - a straight reduction of £300,000
Green Party - a straight reduction of £300,000
Conservative Party - a straight reduction of £250,000
Labour Party - an off-set reduction of £100,000*
Obviously (and unfortunately!) it was the 'SNP/Liberal Coalition' budget position that was passed, but other political parties should at least show some humility and honesty about their own complicity in all of this.
As voiced before, the sad truth is that the City of Edinburgh Council is now being 'finance-driven' and not 'service-driven'.
*Our own proposal was that the Council would pay the complete Edinburgh Leisure annual grant at the beginning of April 2008 (as opposed to splitting it over the financial year) thus enabling Edinburgh Leisure to generate additional interest receipts of approximately £100k to make-up for the grant reduction.
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