Bedroom Tax and Management & Communications ...

I promised to post up some details on the divisions on items 9.1 and 9.2 at the recent Policy and Strategy Committee ... apologies for the delay, but I'll now simply provide the text of the draft 'Action Note' from the meeting below:

9.1

City of Edinburgh Council
Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee
26 February 2013

Item 9.1 Motion by Cllr Burgess – “No Eviction for ‘Bedroom Tax’“

Committee shares the concern about the introduction of the “Bedroom Tax” and agrees to continue the motion for one cycle and requests a report on the implications for the Council’s Housing Revenue Account and housing service by adopting a “No Eviction” policy as requested by the motion.

Committee also agrees that, after consideration by CP&S on 16 April, the report be referred to the Health, Wellbeing and Housing Policy Development and Review Sub Committee on 23 April with a request that the sub committee discuss recommendations for mitigation measures and support for tenants with a view to preventing evictions.


Proposed: Cllr Henderson
Seconded: Cllr Cardownie

 9.2

Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee
26 February 2013

Item 9.2: Motion by Cllr Chapman: Management and Communications within the Council

1. notes the motion proposed by Cllr Chapman and the issues she references;

2. notes that the recommendations in the report on the Staff Survey to Policy and Strategy Committee on 2 October 2012 were passed without amendment;

3. considers that the indicators in paragraph two present an unduly negative picture of employee satisfaction;

4. whilst accepting that low staff morale, low productivity and poor working relationships should always be issues of concern for an employer with the ambition of the City of Edinburgh Council, queries the basis for the comparative statistics and their robustness in showing a level of disquiet and anxiety with management and communication in the Council;

5. notes that following the report on the Employee survey in October 2012, service specific People Plans have been updated to address the areas for improvement identified;

6. notes that a new whistleblowing policy is in development and will shortly be the subject of Trade Union consultation with a view to implementation in May 2013 and;

7. instructs the Chief Executive to report to Corporate Policy and Strategy within two cycles on the further analysis that has been undertaken on the survey since October 2012 together with the steps taken by management to deal with the issues raised, how these changes are being implemented and how they will be monitored.


Proposed: Cllr Burns
Seconded: Cllr Cardownie

Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee today

Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee meeting this morning ... quite a full agenda this month, the detail of which you can see here.

Lots of healthy debate on the Grants to Third Parties Report; the Edinburgh People's Survey Report; and the Motions at 9.1 and 9.2 on the main agenda.

Grants Report was approved, without division (which is quite something given its huge complexity); People's Survey was noted with lots of detailed questioning about its content ... and some tongue-in-cheek references to it being made in North Korea ;-)

There where, regrettably, divisions on the Motions at 9.1 and 9.2 and I'll post up further details once the draft minute of the meeting is ready.

Manchester weekend

Back in (a still sunny) Edinburgh now, after a very enjoyable weekend in Manchester.

Apart from visiting the city for various Party Conferences over recent months, I've not had time to 'be a tourist' in Manchester for years; and was duly very impressed with all the city has to offer ...

... specific highlights (in no particular order) being:

• the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI)
• the John Rylands Library (stunning mixture of old and new architecture - pictured here)
• Manchester Art Gallery - the Raqib Shaw exhibition was absolutely fascinating
• Manchester Chinatown - great for just wandering around

And we also visited some good Manga shops (for Junior, of course!) and frequented some nice eateries (for me!) ... a good weekend had by all :-)

Most enjoyable aspect though, was catching up with many friends - old and new - from our time living in that part of the world in the late eighties/early nineties :-))

Manchester-bound

Its the end of half-term week and I'm escaping for a few days to sunny Manchester ... mind you, Edinburgh is looking pretty glorious in the sunshine this afternoon :-)

So - bit of a 'blogging/tweeting/facebook silence' between now and next Tuesday.

You can get me on the mobile if really urgent!

A poem for Valentine's Day

I've always truly adored Emily Dickinson's poetry - and this, for me, is the most intense of her love poems ...

... certainly one for Valentine's Day :-)

It's full of complete - and willing - surrender to the moment of living, and an acceptance of human limitation. She knows that our own, personal realm, matters not.

I think its a wonderful piece of poetry that just simply stops you in your tracks.



I have no Life but this --

I have no Life but this --
To lead it here --
Nor any Death -- but lest
Dispelled from there --

Nor tie to Earths to come --
Nor Action new --
Except through this extent --
The Realm of you --


(1877)

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Easter Craiglockhart Hill - consultation extension

I posted at the weekend about the upcoming consultation event on the future ownership of Easter Craiglockhart Hill ... that meeting, next Thursday evening, is still going ahead.

But I've also received quite a bit of feedback about the perceived 'short length' of the consultation period, which was due to finish at the end of February.

Now, to be fair, that length of period was initially a response to the original motion that led to the request for a Council Report on all of this - and which instructed the report to come back to Committee within 4-cycles.

But having reflected on all of the feedback, I have asked for the consultation period to be extended by a month (so it will run through until the 31st March) and the eventual report will now go to the next Committee cycle ... so likely to be reported to the Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee on Tuesday 14th May.

The Council's website will be updated to reflect these changes as soon as feasible.

Thanks to those who got in touch with constructive criticism on all of this - particularly my Ward colleague Gavin Corbett.

Edinburgh Inter Faith Association

Helped Co-Chair an Edinburgh Inter Faith Association event earlier ...

... main topics of discussion for the morning where sex, death, faith and food-banks. I kid you not!

In particular, the presentations from two food-bank organisations raised a lively, and informative, debate about the prospective need for more such provision here in the Capital City.


More details of both organisations can be found via the links below:

• Edinburgh North West Food Bank
• Feed Glasgow

Both groups were hugely impressive in their commitment, and sheer dedication, to selflessly helping those most in need.

Sadly, I expect the requirement for just such commitment will be further tested in the coming months :-(

Allotment Update (at last!)

Hooray! - actually managed a few, family hours down at the Allotment this afternoon ...

... don't think I've personally been there since December :-(

Thankfully, my better-half has been a bit more attentive, and everything is in reasonable order.

Had a small fire (you can see the tray in one of the empty beds here) to burn up some of the dead cuttings etc.

Several hours of clearing/burning, and it feels like some of the plots  are now ready for Spring :-)

Information and consultation event: Easter Craiglockhart Hill

The Council is hosting an information and consultation event about the future of Easter Craiglockhart Hill Local Nature Reserve and adjacent lands ... all the details can be found here, but I'll also just re-produce the main body of text below.

The event is at 7.30pm on Thursday 21st February, at Meggatland Sports Complex, Function Suite, 60J Colinton Road , Edinburgh , EH14 1AS. If you can't make the meeting, then there's a brief on-line survey here.

I personally think it really important there's a good response-rate to this consultation (the area concerned is in Ward 9) ... so please do take the time to feed back any comments prior to 28th February.

Many thanks :-)

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An opportunity has arisen to transfer ownership and management of the woodland and open space within the Easter Craiglockhart Hill Local Nature Reserve and Craighouse Campus to the Council or appropriate body in the community.

The City of Edinburgh Council would like to invite you to attend an information and consultation event to provide you with updated information and hear your views on the proposals.
The map, available to download on the right of this page, shows present ownership and the location of the various parcels of land involved in the consultation. They consist of the following:

1. City of Edinburgh Council owner area of Local Nature Reserve
2. Craighouse Partnership owner area of Local Nature Reserve
3. Meadowspot Woods section in Craighouse Partnership ownership
4. South Craighouse Woods, Craighouse Partnership ownership
5. Orchard, Craighouse Partnership ownership

The various options to be discussed are as follows:

• Option 1 - Take no action. The consequence would be that a new residents association (of the potential new housing development) would become the owners and managers of the Craighouse Partnership owned section of the local nature reserve as well as the lawn area known as The Orchard.
• Option 2 - The Council could take ownership of the entire reserve from Craighouse Partnership and manage it on behalf of the city, community and the residents.
• Option 3 - Joint ownership with the community taking ownership of and management responsibility for the Craighouse Partnership owned land and the Council retaining the part of Local Nature Reserve it already owns.
• Option 4 - Community ownership and management of all areas
• Option 4a - Transition period of joint ownership and management between the Council and the community moving towards full community ownership and management over a period of time (5 years was suggested as an example) and as the community was able to raise funds and show their ability to manage the land, ownership would be transferred.

The event is being held on Thursday 21 February 2013 from 7.30 - 9.30pm at Meggatland Sports Complex, Function Suite, 60J Colinton Road , Edinburgh , EH14 1AS . There will be maps on display and staff available to discuss your queries. A short presentation is scheduled for 7.45pm.

If you are able to attend but still wish to provide comments please complete our online survey. Please note this survey will close at 12 noon on Thursday 28 February 2013.

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2013/14 Budget approved

The Council's 2013/14 Budget was approved at Thursday's meeting - the relevant News Release follows below, and you can see all the paperwork and motions/amendments via this link.

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Budget keeps to contract with the capital

Published Thursday 7 February 2013

Increasing investment in frontline services in Edinburgh for vulnerable residents of all ages was a priority at the Council budget meeting today.

Doubling investment in roads and pavements, supporting young people into employment, a planned fund to help attract new developers and businesses to Edinburgh, and protecting grants for the voluntary sector were other key investment areas.

The sixth successive freeze in Council Tax maintains Edinburgh's band D rate as the lowest of Scotland's four major cities.

Cllr Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Budget Committee, said: "For the first time we asked the public and partner organisations to comment on the Council's draft budget. This allowed us to listen to people about how money should be spent and saved to allow us to deliver our Contract with the Capital in a very well managed and open way.

"It also meant we were able to include some ideas and suggestions from other political parties. This means the widest possible views are reflected in how we best use money to support individuals, communities and businesses.

"We will start looking at next year's budget in the coming weeks and we will be looking for views on how we spend money on an ongoing basis from now on."

Cllr Bill Cook, Vice-Convener of the Finance and Budget Committee, said: "We used the feedback received during the consultation process to help us make many keys decisions, including doubling our budget for roads and pavements by £12m, adding £10.5m to improve schools, nurseries and facilities for children and £0.5m extra has been invested in foster care.

"We agreed that looking after the most vulnerable people in the city needs increased investment and £2.9m extra has been given to meet the needs of people with physical and learning disabilities and an additional £2.25m to provide care for older people in their own homes."

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Council Budget Day

Council Budget Day.

Here's a short reprise of how we've approached the process this year:

• we published an initial draft Budget back in mid-November 2012
• the full paperwork, from November, is here
• after several months of consultation, we reported on the feedback received here

Its really not possible to overstate what a change this is from previous practices - not perfect admittedly, but light-years ahead of what was happening before.

For the first time, we've given residents and stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the Council's full draft budget, months ahead of it being agreed. And we consulted with a wide range of individuals and groups including the business community, parents, community organisations, trade unions and the voluntary sector.

As a direct result of that consultation, several significant changes have been made to the proposals in a number of areas including:

• Employability - helping to support young people into work
• Grants to the voluntary sector - providing the services people want
• Revised parking charges - supporting the business community
• Looking at how we improve our public realm
• Culture pass - decided against due to lack of public support, invest money elsewhere

And last week, we published our final proposals - you can see them here ... and they are now (very slightly adjusted) on the Council's main website (for today's 10am meeting) here.

You can watch the whole meeting (from 10am onwards) here.

Following the last local elections, in May 2012, the Capital Coalition agreed a new Contract with the Capital, a fresh start for Edinburgh, seeking to create a Council that listens to, and works with, local people in a co-operative, fair, accountable and responsible manner.

As part of this contract, the Coalition agreed six key commitments. Today's budget proposals, and the manner in which they have been developed, reinforce the Coalition’s intent to deliver on its commitments.
 
And don't forget - you can watch the whole of today's proceedings here.

Providing for Edinburgh’s economic growth and prosperity

Its budget-week at the Council, and as mentioned on a few occasions now, Edinburgh's Capital Coalition has six main themes running-through its 53-pledges: you can see all the detail of those pledges here, along with a commentary on how delivery is progressing.

One of the main themes is to provide for Edinburgh’s economic growth and prosperity - and this week's upcoming Council Budget, for 2013/14, has several commitments to help do just that.

The detail is within the main motion, but here are the key points:

• Continued support for youth employment by maintaining funding of £1 million for the Edinburgh Guarantee - this investment will further capitalise on the important and productive work of the Edinburgh Guarantee to date.  The Council will continue to work with city businesses to create opportunities and improve career prospects for the city's young people.
• The investment of £800,000 in grant funding to employability services in the city - four strands of the economic strategy working in tandem will result in sustainable growth from investment in jobs.
  By continuing to fund employability services, we will continue to help unemployed people into work
  Getting people into work has economic and social benefits for the individual and the city as a whole. This is part of a wider £6m plus strategy for long term jobs securing the economic future of the city.
• Development of a Strategic Investment Fund of £7.5million and instructing the Chief Executive to report back to Council on 22 August 2013 on how this will be established - business growth and investment play important roles in stimulating city economies. The right infrastructure needs to be in place to achieve business growth and investment. By creating an urban investment fund, this can fund crucial infrastructure development and can also act as leverage to co-invest with private developers.

As mentioned before, all of this - and much more - will now be debated/decided at the special Council Meeting at 10am this Thursday, 7th February, when the final 2013/14 Council Budget will be approved.

You can watch the whole meeting here.

Ensuring Edinburgh and its residents are well cared for

Its budget-week at the Council, and as mentioned a few days ago, Edinburgh's Capital Coalition has six main themes running-through its 53-pledges: you can see all the detail of those pledges here, along with a commentary on how delivery is progressing.

One of the main themes is to ensure that Edinburgh and its residents are well cared for - and this week's upcoming Council Budget, for 2013/14, has several commitments to help do just that.

The detail is within the main motion, but here are the key points:

• Investment of £4 million in building a 60 bed care home in the north of the city - its important to remember that care homes are not the only solution but are part of it. Long term aim is for people to live independently in their own homes, in their communities.
• To that end, an additional investment of £2 million to provide care for an increasing number of older people to support them in their own homes - we are faced with an ageing population and this brings major challenges in providing the right care for older people. But this type of investment will help us meet that.
• Additional investment of £2.9 million to meet the needs of people with physical and learning disabilities - demand for health/social care services is rising as people are living longer with long term conditions due to better health provision.
•  Investment of £500,000 to support carers - we recently appointed a Carers' Champion; hopefully providing further evidence that the Capital Coalition is fully commited to supporting carers.
• We're investing £112k in Garden Aid to reduce the qualifying age from 80 to 75 years - this will help ensure that more vulnerable residents are supported in their communities

As mentioned in earlier posts, all of this - and much more - will now be debated/decided at the special Council Meeting at 10am this Thursday, 7th February, when the final 2013/14 Council Budget will be approved.

You can watch the whole meeting here.

Supporting our communities and keeping them safe

There's just no doubt what the main topic in the draft-Budget feedback was: roads and pavements.

So - we're planning to invest an additional £12 million in that budget-area, for 2013/14, virtually doubling the existing spend - these additional monies will:

• Help keep the city moving
• Be to the benefit of all road users (motorists, buses, cyclists and pedestrians)
• create and maintain Edinburgh's cycle infrastructure (with 6% of the transport revenue and capital budgets so allocated)
• Increase the work to roads and pavements in residential streets
• Enhance the Streetscape in local shopping areas by prioritising pavement resurfacing in higher footfall areas

By far the largest allocation of funding will be used for general road and pavement resurfacing/reconstruction, with the existing system of prioritisation being used to determine the increased programme of works.


In addition, we're planning to employ additional inspectors to ensure utility companies repair roads to an appropriate standard with a commitment to begin to remedy the particular issues in rural west Edinburgh. Utility companies should indeed abide by their obligation to help us maintain the condition of our roads.


Another strong theme coming from the draft-Budget consultation, was the desire to see more monies devolved locally - so, we're going to do just that, and devolve some £120,000 to neighbourhood areas for targeted clean-ups and to employ an additional 12 Environmental Wardens to help keep our streets clean and neighbourhoods safer.


This will help build on the success of previous neighbourhood targeted cleaning ‘blitz’ programmes of local problems areas.


All of this - and more - will be debated/decided at the special Council Meeting at 10am this Thursday, 7th February, when the final 2013/14 Council Budget will be approved. You can watch it here.

Ensuring every child in Edinburgh has the best start in life

Edinburgh's Capital Coalition has six main themes running-through its 53-pledges: you can see all the detail here, along with a commentary on how delivery is progressing.

You'll see that the first theme in to help ensure every child in Edinburgh has the best start in life - and this week's upcoming Council Budget, for 2013/14, has several commitments to help do just that.

The detail is within the main motion, but here are the key points:

• investment of £558k in 2013/14 for the recruitment and retention of more Council foster carers to reduce use of independent foster agencies, with a planned further investment over the following four years of £8.267m
  
• investment of £725k in 2013/14 to support children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, with a planned further investment over the following four years of £7.057m
  
• completion of the Wave 3 school replacement programme with a funding commitment over the next five years of £7 million towards the replacement of St John’s RC Primary School, £6.382 million for a replacement St Crispin’s Special School
  
• allocation of £618,000 in capital for 2017/18 to fund early stage design works for a new secondary school in Craigmillar
  
• an additional allocation of £10.5 million for new capital projects in the Children and Families estate

The final 2013/14 Council Budget will now be decided at the special Council Meeting at 10am next Thursday, 7th February. You can watch it here.

Maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in Edinburgh

Lots of attention yesterday around the decision on Leith Waterworld - you can read some details on that here.

But, alongside that agreement to support the feasibility phase, the final draft budget (also published yesterday) included several others measures to maintain and enhance the quality of life in Edinburgh - I'll simply list some of the key ones here:

• allocation of an additional £2 million in Capital-funding for pitches, pavilions, parks and new sports infrastructure.
  
  
• a commitment of up to £60,000 to begin an options assessment and stakeholder analysis on the future of Meadowbank Sports Centre.
.
• a commitment of £20,000 to pilot alternative opening hours for city centre museums and galleries during peak periods.

• continuing investment in festivals and events to maintain Edinburgh’s leading position.

You can see more detail in the actual motion - here - but these commitments are in response to much of the feedback from the earlier consultation on the early draft of our budget and aim to better meet local (and visitor) demand.

The final 2013/14 Council Budget will now be decided at the special Council Meeting at 10am next Thursday, 7th February. You can watch it here.