2014/15 Budget proposals in full

As indicated a few days ago, we're publishing today - a week prior to actual Budget Day - the full and final draft of our revised budget proposals for 2014/15.

And as also mentioned, you can still access our initial draft proposals (published in September last year) here - with the associated, detailed figures via links here - and a report on the feedback we received from the public here.

I'll now simply replicate the main text of our final draft motion for 2014/15 below, but it can also be accessed here (that link includes some +30-pages of the associated tables/information!).

I think the motion below speaks for itself ... and it will now be debated at the Budget Day Council Meeting, 10am on Thursday 13th February, to be webcast here.

Motion by the Capital Coalition

Revenue Budget 2014/15; Housing Revenue Account Budget 2014/15; Capital Investment Programme 2014/19

1. Introduction:

1.1 In 2012, the Capital Coalition entered into a contract with the people of Edinburgh which continues to this day. We have committed to:

• Ensure that Council finances are robust, balanced and used to the city’s best advantage
• Listen to and work with people in a fair and honest way
• Invest in key services to meet the needs of our residents 
• Be open, accountable and efficient
• Promote Edinburgh as a vibrant, international capital city

These commitments and the pledges contained in the Coalition’s Contract with the Capital are, and will continue to be, central to this administration’s work and budgets for this and future years. 

1.2 Since May 2012, the Capital Coalition has successfully:  

• Protected front line functions by finding greater efficiencies in the Council’s operations rather than reducing services. The Coalition will continue to do this and emphasises that no area of the Council will be exempt from maximising efficiency and effectiveness
• Established a high level member/officer team charged with developing radical proposals to transform the way in which the Council does business and generate significant efficiency savings for future years
• Identified the means for creating the Strategic Investment Fund of £7.5 million which will be invested to maximise overall return to the Council
• Established a strong working relationship with NHS Lothian to develop a robust plan to reduce levels of delayed discharge in hospitals in line with The Scottish Government’s targets for 2014-2018
• Started work on the new £37 million James Gillespie’s High School with the new classrooms, gym and nursery at the adjacent primary school already having been completed
• Agreed to build the new £35 million Boroughmuir High School with work expected to start on the new facility in late 2014 
• Doubled the capital funding available to deal with rising school rolls to £14.9 million 
• Outlined a £30 million, 5 year Capital Investment Programme for our schools and other buildings in the Children and Families estate in order to ensure that the condition is graded B or above 
• Delivered the new Gaelic Medium Education Primary and Nursery School; Bun-sgoil Taobh na Pairce
• Delivered significant new extensions at five Primary Schools to respond to the challenges of rising school rolls
• Opened the new Seaview Respite Care Centre 
• Delivered an extensive ICT refresh programme in the Children and Families estate providing new equipment, improved wireless and internet access and storage
• Continued to deliver the Council’s Economic Strategy – A Strategy for Jobs 2012-17. This has:

                      o Created or safeguarded 4,213 jobs

                      o Supported £221.7 million of physical investment

                      o Supported 4,445 people into work or learning

• Pledged continued support for the Edinburgh Guarantee. This has resulted in Edinburgh achieving and sustaining its highest ever rate of positive destinations for school leavers (up from 32nd local authority in 2009/10 to above the Scotland average in 2012/13 with 91.4% of school leavers entering positive destinations) 
• Agreed funding for a new care home which will open in 2015
• Invested £16.452 million in 2014/15 to improve roads, footpaths and carriageways throughout the city

1.3 This has all been achieved within an extremely challenging financial climate which has included:

• The need to make savings of at least £120 million over the next four years; £36 million in 2014/15; £30 million in 2015/16; £38 million in 2016/17 and £16 million in 2017/18 
• Growing levels of need particularly for older people’s care services and increasing numbers of vulnerable people
• Financial pressures, many still unclear, as a result of the Westminster Government’s welfare reform agenda 
• Real-terms reductions in our overall grant funding 
• Increasing numbers of pupils in our Nursery and Primary Schools 
• Inflationary increases in costs for example energy and contractual commitments 
• Changes in legislation such as National Insurance contracted out rate

1.4 Outcome of the consultation

As part of its response to these challenges, the Capital Coalition has given the people of Edinburgh the opportunity to have an even bigger say in the budget setting process. We have:

• Published a draft budget almost five months ahead of today’s budget meeting
• Conducted a wide range of public meetings
• Promoted live question and answer sessions via Social Media 
• Sent out nearly 40,000 letters and emails

1.5 The Coalition has listened to the range of views expressed and as a direct result of the consultation has decided to:

• Amend the proposal to share school librarians 
• Reject the proposal to reduce funding for Additional Support Needs
• Provide funding to maintain lower class sizes in English and Maths in S1 and S2 for pupils who are experiencing literacy or numeracy difficulties
• Amend the original proposal for kinship carers

In addition the Coalition has decided to:

• Increase funding for supported bus services by an additional £120,000 in 2014/15
• Note the continuing allocation to cycling as a percentage of both the net capital expenditure and the net revenue expenditure of the Transport division of the Council, including revenue funding for core roads services, transport and neighbourhood roads, but excluding tram and certain specifically allocated capital funding, namely flood prevention and coastal protection, agrees this percentage should be increased to 7% for 2014/15 and confirms the actual allocations to cycling for financial years 2012/13 and 2013/14
• Reject the proposal to reduce funding to Police Scotland for community policing – on the specific written understanding that both partners will work to develop a service level agreement (SLA) focusing on Edinburgh’s needs within Police Scotland’s portfolio of services. That SLA (which will explicitly include Road Safety training) will be monitored and assessed against performance via a Partnership Agreement between Police Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council, with regular reporting to the newly established Police and Fire Scrutiny Committee and the Transport and Environment Committee

1.6 None of these decisions has been taken lightly, wherever a proposal has been amended, funding has had to be found elsewhere to present a balanced budget. However, the Coalition will continue to drive forward progress on the six strands which form the basis of our Contract with the Capital:

    Ensuring every child has the best start in life

• Investing a further £1.164million in the Early Years Change Fund in 2014-15 bringing the total annual funding level to £4.038 million
• Providing further revenue funding of £1.131 million in 2014-15 for increasing overall pupil numbers across Primary, Secondary and Early Years
• Investing to increase the number of nursery hours for 3 and 4 year old children from 475 hours to 600 hours per year in 2014/15
• Doubling the number of places in holiday respite playschemes
•  Building on the successful children’s services inspection to improve services from ‘good’ to ‘excellent'  
• Strengthening commitment to corporate parenting including free leisure cards for looked after children and their carers
• Continuing to improve services for children with Additional Support Needs. Not only is there no reduction in front line additional support need budgets but £281,000 demography funding has been provided in 2014/15 and by 2017/18 there will be a net increase of funding for additional support needs of 3.8%  
• Continuing the successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence with year on year improvements in examination results which are now in line with or above the national average on all measures
• Working with NHS Lothian and partners to take forward the development of integrated children’s services

        

    Reducing poverty, inequality and deprivation 

• Investment in mitigating measures to offset the impact of Welfare Reform 
• Rent arrears have more than doubled since the introduction of the Bedroom Tax in April 2013. A dedicated Welfare Reform Team has been established to help tenants who face difficulties in paying rent 
• The number of council tenants who receive help through Discretionary Housing Payments has increased from fewer than 100 to more than 1,700. At any one time there is only one single bedroom home available for every 80 households who have had benefits reduced by the Bedroom Tax
• The Council and its partners will build over 1,000 affordable homes this year, twice the previous yearly average. One of the biggest housing led regeneration projects has begun in Pennywell generating more than 700 new homes 
• We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative to deliver a community solar Photo Voltaic (solar panels) Scheme
• New community cooperatives are being established in Gracemount, Greendykes and West Pilton as part of the 21st Century Homes Programme
• Continuing investment in digital inclusion for communities building on the People’s Network provision
• Additional investment of £0.665 million to support benefit administration to enable the Council to respond to the increasing number of applications for benefits arising from national Welfare Reform changes

      

    Providing for Edinburgh’s economic growth

• Continuing to deliver the Council’s Strategy for Jobs, which is working to create 20,000 new jobs, support £1.3billion of infrastructure investment and help 10,000 people into work or learning by 2017 
• This includes:

- Supporting the city's four priority investment zones for development and regeneration (City Centre, Waterfront, West Edinburgh and South/South-East Edinburgh)

- Regenerating Edinburgh's town centres

- Commissioning of services to provide childcare support for working parents and supported employment

•  Developing a Sustainable Energy Action Plan for the city and guidelines for exemplar sustainable projects in the city
• Accelerating the programme of property and land disposals to encourage appropriate development including (new builds) resulting in the creation of jobs

        

     Strengthening and supporting our communities and keeping them safe

• Investing £1.2 million of Older People’s Change Fund money to reduce social isolation in communities
• Continuing to invest in community policing 
• Continuing work to further reduce recorded crime
• Building upon the success of year one and the delivery of the cooperative capital framework, the Administration will continue to progress the development of more cooperatives and social enterprises in the city  
• Investing in CCTV upgrading 
• Improving engagement with citizens and communities

        

     Ensuring Edinburgh and its residents are well cared for

• Over £120 million of public and private funds has been invested to build 1000 new affordable homes in 2013/14
• £48.2 million invested to improve existing homes   
• Over £3 million invested to provide adaptations to people’s homes  
• The Council has installed 8,000 new kitchens and bathrooms, 2,000 homes with new windows and 13,000 homes with new doors
• Investing £8 million in a new 60 bed care home for older people  
• Investing £8.7 million Change Fund money in new preventative services for older people including £5.6 million for additional home care reablement, intermediate care, care at home and community nursing. This will include increasing the average number of domiciliary care hours delivered per week from 42,557 in 2012/13 to 47,055 during 2013/14 (a 10.6% increase)  
• Investing £5.1 million in new services for increasing numbers of older people, adults with learning and physical disabilities and increased need for assessment and mental health services  
• Working with staff and residents of Council care homes to improve services  
• Working toward making Edinburgh a dementia friendly city  
• Continuing to work with and provide support for carers  
• Continuing the development of Health and Social Care integration with NHS Lothian and Partners  
• Preparing Council and other services for the introduction of Self Directed Support in April 2014

     

    Maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in Edinburgh

• Securing Heritage Lottery Funds which will potentially bring in over £5 million of investment for Saughton Park and the historic winter gardens
• Redeveloping Central Library as a cultural hub for the city
• Further developing libraries as community hubs by opening 3 new libraries in Craigmillar, Kaimes and Drumbrae
• Continuing to work with partners to reinforce Edinburgh’s position as a global events and festivals destination
• Earmarking up to £200,000 to fund feasibility work into the future of Meadowbank
• Investment in the City’s infrastructure (including roads, pavements, bridges, structures and flood prevention)

-  2013/14 - £41.440 million

-  2014/15 - £35.166 million

1.7 An additional Capital budget of £28.5 million was approved last year for 2013-2017. Work to deliver projects has been continuing over the last 12 months and will now focus on:

• £32 million to be spent on affordable housing 
• £26 million to be invested across the Council’s property estate to maintain infrastructure, including building management systems and to make it more energy efficient
• £16 million spend on improving roads and pavements 
•  £38 million investment in a new Portobello High School
• Investing in energy-efficient white street lighting via £2 million of interest free external funding 
• Replacement of St Crispin’s Special School
• Building a new St John’s RC Primary School  
• Continuing to invest in providing additional accommodation in Primary Schools to respond to the challenges of rising rolls with new extensions or adaptation works planned and well advanced at Kirkliston, Broughton, Craigour Park, Flora Stevenson, Fox Covert, St David’s, Stockbridge and Victoria Primary Schools

Continuous monitoring of the Council’s capital programme will be undertaken to ensure projects are delivered on time and on budget.

2.0 Savings 

 

The main areas for savings are carried through from last year’s budget and focus on:

• Delivering procurement transformational efficiencies
• Implementing internal improvement plans
• Maximising income generation
• Reducing our carbon footprint and generating income through strategic energy projects
• Reducing the head count of the organisation by developing existing staff, revising roles and responsibilities and preparing for a structural review of the organisation
• Reducing sickness absence to 4% across the organisation
• Maximising savings through the rationalisation of the Council’s property estate 
• Review the effectiveness of existing measures to further encourage improved performance across the Council and partners

3.0 Risks and Challenges 

 

The Council continues to face significant risks and challenges which are more clearly defined in the Revenue and Budget report 2014/15 – Risks and Reserves (Appendix 1); these will be actively managed and reported through Council/Committee.

4.0 Future Budget Development 

 

Council further agrees to:

• Continue to drive the efficiency and effectiveness agenda to ensure value for money across all service areas
• Work across all council services to ensure delivery of the Coalition’s pledges  
• Continue to work with partner agencies to maximise resources and deliver the highest quality integrated services
• Launch, on a phased basis, a new citywide Shared Repairs Service in 2014
• Continue to improve budget consultation 
• Publish a draft budget in early autumn 2014 and keep budget consultation and engagement as a continuous process
• Continue to reach out to those who currently do not interact with the Council to gain their views on how we spend and save
• Work with partner agencies to develop a more cohesive approach to budgeting and service provision  
• Further develop the cooperative and trust models in the delivery of services
• Work to develop an SLA, focussing on Edinburgh’s needs within Police Scotland’s portfolio of services
• Review the current model of Kinship Care with a view to developing its role within the Looked After Children’s sector  
• Reduce energy consumption across the Council’s estate and investigate establishing energy services companies to develop projects, to reduce emissions and save money

5. Conclusions 

 

Council notes:

• The report by the Director of Corporate Governance setting out the Revenue and Capital Budget framework
• The report by the Director of Corporate Governance setting out the potential equality and rights risks and carbon risks associated with the revenue budget framework 
• The consultation undertaken and the commitment to increase engagement in setting future budgets
• The review of both third sector grants and the mechanism for delivery to meet future challenges 
• The work being undertaken by the BOLD project and the corporate review of alternative delivery mechanisms in supporting high quality service

Council approves: 

• The Revenue Budget set out in the reports, subject to adjustments, in Appendix 1 to this motion
• The 2014/19 Capital Budget as set out in the report by the Director of Corporate Governance  
• A band ‘D’ Council Tax of £1,169
• The Council Tax and Rating resolution set out in Appendix 2 to this motion
• The schedule of charges for Council services as set out in Appendix 3 to this motion
• The Prudential Indicators as set out in Appendix 4 to this motion  
• The recommendation by the Director of Services for Communities to increase rents by 6% and the outline 5 year Housing Revenue Account Capital programme for 2014-2019

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Council Budget Meeting next week ...

As mentioned the other day, it's the 2014/15 Council Budget Meeting, next Thursday 13th February ...

... the Capital Coalition's full and final draft, of our revised budget proposals, will be published tomorrow morning (Friday 7th), on Committee Papers On-line (CPOL) - and here on the blog.

But - before all that - we did have a regular Council Meeting earlier today - the reports for which are all here; and you can (if so inclined?!) watch proceedings via the webcast archive very soon ...

... you know you want to ;-)

Scotland can help England to be One Nation

I've written a short-piece for the Electoral Reform Society, to coincide with the publication of their Towards One Nation report ... my brief thoughts are below:

There are those in the Scottish Labour Party who are always happy to blame the introduction of STV-PR to elect Scottish Councils, in 2007, for the rise of the SNP and thus the electoral decline of Scottish Labour.

It’s a simple theory – everything was someone else’s fault, we have no responsibility, and if only the electoral system had stayed the same then all would have been fine?

Unfortunately, for those who propound it, this theory is also a million miles from the truth.

For one thing --- so much has changed in the last decade: technology, communications, twitter, facebook, banking collapse, crisis of the elites, the decline of deference, a Westminster Coalition Government, the rise of UKIP in England, and general institutional decline – right across the media-spectrum from the BBC to the tabloid press.

The idea that whatever happens, the Labour Party simply has to stay the same and try and keep everything as it was at the time we were most electorally successful, is frankly the worst kind of conservatism.

The truth is that all healthy, advanced democracies in Europe use voting systems that deliver seats broadly in proportion to the voters’ wishes. 

Regrettably, the UK lies 16^th out of the 25 countries considered full democracies, in the Economist Intelligence Unit 2012 Democracy Index[1] --- and all of those above us, have forms of PR for their elections except Canada.

And, of course, it was a Labour-led Administration and a Labour First Minister that actually brought in the 2007 electoral changes - not from narrow party interest, because the changes did initially hurt Labour to begin with.

It is all too easy to be principled when it’s in your own interests, much more difficult when it might harm them. Sometimes though, when you do the right thing, the right things eventually happen.

And the truth now, in 2014, is that on many measures Labour is in a better position in Scotland’s councils under STV-PR that we were under FPTP: 

•  more Leaders than in 2003 (16 now compared to 14 in 2003) 
• a say in governing more councils (19 now compared to 17 in 2003)
• Labour Councillors and Labour in Administration/s in places that we had never had them before i.e. Aberdeenshire

The Labour Councillors who were so heavily concentrated in certain parts of the country, are now spread more thinly but more widely across the whole country, doing away with ‘them and us’ areas and helping to create a real ‘One Nation Labour’.

And while throughout the time of recent Labour Governments at Westminster, Labour haemorrhaged council seats – losing 58% of all the councils it had held at the start of the decade – Labour has held, and actually gained councils, in Scotland under STV-PR.

As shown in the Electoral Reform Society’s recent report , ‘Towards One Nation’ [2] if Ed Miliband really wants to modernise British politics and to make the UK a better democracy, then seeking to adopt the Scottish Local Government electoral system for English and Welsh council elections would go a long way to achieving his goals.

By doing the right thing by the country, he may well do the right thing by the Party; and finally give Labour some control in Councils in the South of England.

Now, that really would be ‘One Nation’ – undivided.

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[1] https://portoncv.gov.cv/dhub/porton.por_global.open_file?p_doc_id=1034

 

[2] http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/images/dynamicImages/file/Towards_One_Nation_%2029Jan2014Final.pdf

 

Local Budget Day approaching!

Local Budget Day approaching ... not the Council Meeting this coming Thursday ... but at a Special Council Meeting on Thursday 13th February.

And as regular readers will know, we've been consulting on our Draft proposals for some time ... a feedback-report on that process can be found here.

And - as per last year --- and in line with our general commitment to try and make the whole budget- process much more open, transparent and meaningful ...

... it is also our intention (as the Capital Coalition) to publish a full and final draft of our revised budget proposals (including our final draft motion) on Friday (7th), a full week prior to the actual Budget Day.

I'll thus put up links to the relevant files, in a subsequent blog post, at 10am this Friday morning. And, as ever - would welcome any further feedback, once I've published the files.

And - of course! - you can watch the actual meeting live and/or via the archive (in due course).

Towards One Nation

Meant to flag-up this Electoral Reform Society blog-post from last week - link here; and I'll just paste the full text below for ease of reference:

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At the end of last year we published a report, Northern Blues, which made the case for a fairer voting system at the local level from the Conservative perspective. It had a real impact, convincing a range of previously sceptical Conservative commentators of the case for local electoral reform.

Today we are publishing its corollary, Towards One Nation, the Labour case for local electoral reform. It may seem strange that there could be a Conservative and a Labour case for a particular voting system, but the truth is that a fairer system – while ultimately giving the voter a better deal and improving our democracy – also benefits both parties.

Read the full report

For the Conservatives, it means being able to represent its voters in the north and urban areas, and starting to rebuild shattered activist bases in its weakest areas. For Labour, it is a path to realising its ambition to be a One Nation party with representation everywhere – whereas currently the party is locked out of whole regions of the country.

Our report shows that introducing the voting system currently in place for Scottish local elections (i.e. the Single Transferable Vote) across England and Wales would put Labour councillors in 27 of the 69 local authorities which were ‘Labour-free’ in 2011. Most of these areas are concentrated in the south of England and rural areas. It is fascinating to see how regions thought to have minimal Labour support are in fact seeing Labour voters severely under-represented by the voting system. In Castle Point in Essex, for instance, over a quarter of the electorate voted Labour and yet this didn’t yield a single councillor.

Naturally, Labour opponents of local electoral reform will worry about the effect on some of the party’s super-majorities in urban areas. But Towards One Nation shows how having the vast majority of representation on councils completely out of proportion to the number of votes won can in fact weaken the party in power. Labour has at some point lost control over around 60% of the councils in which it had super-majorities in the 1990s.

Another potential objection is that Labour has been weakened in Scotland since the introduction of a fairer local electoral system in 2007. Yet the party is in government in three more Scottish councils than it was in 1999 (when Labour was arguably at the height of its powers), and has the same number of council leaders.

For all its ambition to represent people from across the country, Labour is practically non-existent in parts of the south of England and rural areas. Thousands of people vote Labour in these places, yet simply don’t get the representation they deserve. Local electoral reform would allow Labour to represent its voters everywhere, giving the party a crucial toehold in areas where they need to rebuild their activist base.

Labour is striving to be a One Nation party and is renewing its structures to reach out to a wider pool of supporters and voters. Local electoral reform would help the party do exactly that.

Read the full report

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Allotment Update

Quick visit to the Allotment this afternoon - before the Ireland V Scotland rugby started ... I've very luckily got a ticket for next week's game against England, at Murrayfield, so looking forward to seeing Scotland this afternoon :-)



Anyhow, the Allotment was all in reasonable order - as you can hopefully see from the shot above ... not a huge amount of growing going on obviously, but the Brussel Sprouts still going strong!

We were also fascinated by the extensive growth of bracket-fungus (here on the left - click on the image for a closer view) on one of our logs, which we normally use as a make-shift seat ...

... might not be sitting on it for a while now ;-)

February Leader's Report

February 2014

A community united

	Last Friday evening, hundreds of people gathered together at Cramond Beach, and across the Forth on Pathhead Sands, to release balloons and lanterns and light candles in young Mikaeel Kular's memory. It was an emotional, yet peaceful, way for the community to say their goodbyes. The news of his disappearance, followed by the heartbreaking outcome, led to an incredible outpouring of community spirit, with hundreds of volunteers giving up their time to join the search. My heart goes out to Mikaeel's friends and loved ones as they continue to come to terms with their dreadful loss.
Councillor Andrew Burns Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council

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Sporting chance

From its lofty beginnings as host to the 1970 Commonwealth Games, Meadowbank has been a fine servant to Edinburgh, and, almost half a century on, it continues to play a significant role in the lives of many people across the city, and beyond. Unfortunately, the facilities that were once considered state-of-the-art, aren't what they once were.

With Glasgow 2014 almost upon us, we are keen to build on the legacy for community sport that the Games will undoubtedly bring and our vision is for a leading-edge public sports facility that can give future generations the opportunity to get involved in sport and physical activity.

We are continuing to work closely with our partners to assess the social, sporting, health and economic impacts of a new Meadowbank and will consider the costs of commissioning a feasibility study, incorporating extensive community consultation, at our budget meeting on February 13. Watch this space!

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Tram project latest

It's been an eventful period for the tram since my last report with continuing full line testing, rigorous staff training ahead of service and the launch of the Transport for Edinburgh brand. We now know how Edinburgh trams will look and I'm pleased to see that the style ties in well with Lothian Buses. Integration of the two services is a big priority for us and will make life easier for everyone who wants to get around the city.

Trams are currently only passing through the city centre during the night, allowing important tests and checks to be carried out, but very soon we'll see trams during the day as well. Our safety awareness campaign is already underway but you'll see more activity before the daytime tests begin.

Remember, you can keep up to date with the project by following @edinburghtrams on Twitter.

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Enabling enterprise

I recently visited The Melting Pot, the ideal venue to launch 'Enabling Enterprise', a new strategy aimed at developing social enterprise in Edinburgh.

Social enterprises are making a significant contribution to the city by generating local employment, training and volunteering opportunities; taking innovative approaches to creating products and services and ploughing their profits back into their local communities.

The strategy has been commissioned by the Compact Partnership Board and will focus upon, amongst other things, the growth and resilience of the city's enterprising third sector, promoting and encouraging engagement with social enterprise and investing in education and training.

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Events in parks - tell us your views

Edinburgh's parks play host to many high profile festivals and events every year, enhancing the city's reputation, generating significant economic benefit and enriching our cultural and community offering. However, I am also aware that these events can impact on how they are used by local people and others.

We are now seeking public views on our Parks Events Manifesto. This document helps us to assess how many events take place within our parks and green spaces, and the criteria by which we decide if a request is suitable.

For more information and to complete our survey on our website. We will share the results and recommendations with you in June.

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Stay in the picture

Keep yourself in the picture with our news section online. Watch live full Council and some committee meetings on our webcast. Join the debate on Twitter #edinwebcast  

If you wish to unsubscribe please email us.

February Full Council Meeting

February's Full Council Meeting is coming up next week - meeting starts at 10am on Thursday 6th February ...

... all the reports are now up on Committee Papers On-Line (CPOL) and you can access the main agenda directly here; and the individual reports via this link.

Important to stress, that this isn't the 2014/15 Budget-Setting Meeting - that takes place the following week, at a Special Council Meeting on Thursday (10am start), 13th February. And, as per last year, we'll publish our Capital Coalition Budget Motion on the Friday before (7th February) and ensure it's widely disseminated.

Anyhow - more on all of that to follow for sure ...

... for this coming Thursday, there are a few issues to highlight:

1. there's a further update on Meadowbank - report here
2. an update report on Portobello High School - see here
3. an interesting report on Edinburgh's Social Enterprise Strategy - here

And much more besides!

Of course - if you're so minded, you can watch all the proceedings live here ... or the meeting will be archived a few hours after it finishes for viewing at your leisure ;-)

Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee next Tuesday

January's Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee is next Tuesday 21st  ...

... all the papers are now in the public domain: main Agenda can be found here; and the individual reports are all up on Committee Papers on-Line (CPOL) linked from here.

Only a few reports, but one or two that may well generate some debate I sense?

These Executive Committees aren't yet being webcast, but will be so in a few months time ... bet you can't wait ;-)

Jerry’s Map :-)

Visited an exhibition at Summerhall this afternoon - entitled Jerry's Map; you can read more about it here and I'll add the main text immediately below ...

... by total coincidence, the artist (whom we don't know at all - but you can hear directly from him via this link) is a neighbour of some friends we know in America! You can find that video clip via either Summerhall TV and/or Art in Scotland TV ... both sites are most certainly worth a visit :-)

It was great to be able to go to the exhibition, and instantly e-mail some photos (one of them, as above) of us exploring their neighbour's amazing map :-)

It's well worth a visit - appears to be at Summerhall through until Friday 24th January.

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Jerry Gretzinger

“The map began as just a doodle. I just made little rectangles and crosshatched them. Carefully. And I just kept adding rectangles and I put a river in….and some railroad stations. But there was this moment when I came to the edge of that sheet of paper…got out another sheet of paper and put the two together…and I think I taped them together. That’s when I realized that it kind of had a life of its own.”

An internet sensation, 50 years in the making, Jerry’s Map (as it is known – it has no official title) is an awe-inspiring artwork on a colossal scale. Jerry Gretzinger has been slowly drawing and painting his “map” one 8 x10 inch panel at a time. Working in makeshift studio spaces during spare moments plucked out between career and family. Jerry began with a singular doodle of a fictitious city centre, evolving it into a sublime world of more than 2,500 individual drawings.

Jerry utilises paint brushes, X-Acto knives, adhesive paper, Sharpie markers, acrylic and watercolour paints as well as informational tools such as numbered archival stacks and Excel spreadsheets. However, the most important and unique amongst the tools is chance. He has created systems governing the growth and decay of the map through what he has defined as the “future predictor” – a stack of modified playing cards which he draws from many times a day during his creative process. They are designed to introduce serendipity and chance into all facets of his “world.”

Jerry’s Map has never been seen outside of the United States and Jerry will continue to make modifications to his work at certain periods during the exhibition.

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Extremely good news, for the the start of 2014, with Edinburgh's figures for School-leavers achieving a positive-destination looking markedly improved compared to a few years ago ...

... I'll simply re-produce the relevant News Release below, which can also be found via this link:

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Future looking bright for Edinburgh's school leavers

Published Tuesday 7 January 2014

More school leavers are moving into work, education, or training. This is thanks to the strong partnership that has developed between the public and private sectors through the Edinburgh Guarantee. 

Figures published by the Scottish Government show that the success rate of school leavers in Edinburgh achieving and sustaining a positive destination is continuing to rise and is now at the highest rate ever in Edinburgh. The figure is up 3.1% on this time last year and is now at 91.4%.

A positive destination is defined as a place in Higher Education, Further Education, a job, paid apprenticeship, or work-focused training. 

Cllr Paul Godzik, Convener of the Children and Families Committee, said: “Whether it’s employment, apprenticeships or training, young people need to move out of school and into a positive destination quickly. It is really encouraging that there has been such an improvement in the figures once again.  Moving on to make a new start in life is the boost young people need at this critical point in their lives, and I am delighted that the Edinburgh Guarantee is having such a positive effect.”

Cllr Frank Ross, Convener of the Economy Committee, said: “Ensuring that Edinburgh’s young people have opportunities is vital for the economic success of our city. The year on year improvements that have been achieved since the inception of the Edinburgh Guarantee show that focused collaboration can make a real difference to many young lives. I am confident that with sustained investment and the support of our public, private and third sector partners these improvements will continue in future.”

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all ...

... have had a relatively restful couple of weeks: down in an extremely wet Dorset for the Christmas-week, with a myriad of in-laws; and back in the Capital for Hogmanay, with visitors up here from Stoke-on-Trent.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow ... but before then, we did manage to quickly check out the Allotment this weekend: all looking in reasonable order, and thought the pond had survived all the rain in relatively good fettle ;-)