Grove Street revisited ...

The Grove Street planning application was up before the Sub-Committee again this morning - the full, amended report can be found here.

There was a pretty lengthy debate on the proposed development - I think Members of the Committee had benefited from the earlier site-visit, which I'm grateful they agreed to - and the final decision today was to continue the application for a few more weeks to clarify several concerns, primarily parking, security and site-management.

As I said before ... I really do feel the plans will result in a loss of residential amenity for the local residents and if further (absolute) guarantees on parking, security and site-management can be built into the final decision, then that may just help ameliorate some of the potential negative effects from this application.

Deja Vu

Schools in Edinburgh would be forgiven for thinking they are suffering from a severe bout of Deja Vu given the headlines in the local paper yesterday ...

I'm certainly not aware of any new, definite proposals at the moment?

It is common knowledge that at the next meeting of the Education Committee (19th November) the Lib-Dem/SNP Administration intend to bring forward a report which will hopefully recommend the formation of a Sub-Committee (in essence a Cross Party Working Group) which is exactly what we've been asking them to do for months now ...

... and the report will also hopefully allow the Sub-Committee to 'work up/agree' criteria BEFORE any schools are brought forward for full and proper consultation on any potential closure - and again we've been asking for this type of approach for months.

I've had a lot of contact from people locally - worried about St. Cuthbert's - and I can only repeat that I'm not aware of any new, definite proposals at the moment.

£3billion ... and rising ...

I never cease to be amazed at just how little attention gets paid to the spiralling costs (and absolutely NOTHING has been built yet) of the proposed second Forth Road Bridge.

... every time the tram costs fluctuate by 0.01p there is a public outcry. Fair enough, I'm not complaining about it as public scrutiny is to be welcomed.

But the Scottish Government confirmed several weeks ago now that the cost of any second Forth Road Bridge would be in the region of £3 billion. Yes, £3billion - which, by the way, is a near 10-fold increase from original estimates in FETA's first Local Transport Strategy - and no one seems to have batted an eye-lid?

Maybe it will all be covered by the elusive "Scottish Futures Trust" ... one can but hope.

BBC News website is 10

The 10th-birthday story on the BBC News website yesterday - here - really caught my eye ... my own son was born in late 1997 and the story really does underline a whole generational difference in our relationships with technology.

... by the way, he is actually more computer-literate than me (not that hard I know!) and is still not yet 10 - just.

Switching mobile 'phone provider ...

I'm switching mobile 'phone provider tomorrow - keeping the same number! - but if I'm slower than usual in responding to any messages on the mobile tomorrow, please bear with me.

I'm assured it will be completely painless and over by 4pm ... we'll see?

Word verification on ...

Been a bit plagued by spam-comments over the last few days - so have had to turn on 'word verification' I'm afraid.

I'll leave it on for a while, but do hope to be able to remove it in due course ...

Party time ...

Saturday Party political event for most of today - always hugely popular at home :-(

It was the second in what it appears will be a pretty regular (hopefully not TOO regular) series of Edinburgh-wide events ... this one focusing on the Housing issues facing the capital.

Really good range of speakers and was actually an enjoyable Party political event - bizarre but true :-)

Another Party event this afternoon - children's Birthday Party this time! I won't report at which event the attendees were better behaved :-))

Third round of school building?

I've posted about all of this extensively before, but should report that at yesterday's Full Council meeting there was unanimity (across all five parties!) on a way forward for the next round of school building in Edinburgh.

I moved a motion (item 10.7 on the agenda) on behalf of the Labour Group, which was composited with some text from the Liberals, which then secured all-party support. The final product now reads:


"This Council re-affirms previous decisions regarding the need for a new Portobello High School.

This Council believes that any funding package for a new school for Portobello, and the other 4 schools in “wave 3”, must include substantial support from the Scottish Government and agrees to urgently submit a formal proposal to the Government seeking the required funding. Council further agrees:

• to work with the school communities, of all 5 schools in wave 3, to press the Scottish Government for the required support
• to report back early in the New Year on what contribution could be made from Council resources, through prudential borrowing and capital receipts, or other methods.

This Council recognises the serious and urgent need for 5 new or renovated 'Wave 3' schools and to this end will continue to discuss ways forward with the Scottish Government.

Council notes the on-going constructive dialogue between parents, teachers, the Director and Convener of Education, Children and Families and the Director of Finance on the way forward.

Council welcomes the proposals made by the above to:

1. undertake initial feasibility studies and option appraisals with an aim of completion by end of January 2008 and presenting the results to a meeting of the Education, Children & Families Committee thereafter
2. explore all possible financial options for funding the necessary work
3. meet again in December 2007 to discuss progress."

Obviously, the Scottish Government now needs to deliver on their promised Scottish Futures Trust ... "Over the first term of an SNP government we will introduce a not-for-profit Scottish Futures Trust, which will provide lower cost borrowing opportunities. We expect the Scottish Futures Trust to emerge as a more attractive source of funding for both national and local projects which will effectively crowd out PFI/PPP over time. Current PFI/PPP contracts will be unaffected and it will be open to local authorities and other public bodies to choose between PFI/PPP and Scottish Futures Bonds for planned and future projects. In particular, we will match brick for brick current plans for improvements in our schools and hospitals."

But, to be blunt, I'm entirely unconvinced we would have got this far if we hadn't pressed the current Lib/Nat Coalition at a local level ... all the work done before May was just 'stopped' post-May, and the upshot is that (probably) six or so months have now been lost.

Anyhow, it all now seems to be back on track.

Gould Report (again!)

I blogged about the Gould Report a couple of times earlier this week ... here and here.

I see that Ron Gould himself has now written a letter to the Chair of the Electoral Commission - which can be found here - that seems to have re-ignited a pretty heated debate about the report's conclusions.

I've read his report a couple of times now, and haven't changed my mind on what I consider to be the main conclusion - that the crux of the problems that occurred on 3rd/4th May was the desperately late arrival of the legislation, which was preceded by very poor forward-planning by everyone involved, and far too much of a focus on politics instead of democracy ... a crucial and, in this case, near fatal difference.

Solution - STV for the Scottish Parliament elections :-)

Tragedy of the Commons?

Thinking more about denial ... I see the UN has a fairly worrying report out today that aptly reinforces the challenges facing us all.

BBC website covers the story here and the full UN report is here. The BBC website also has some pretty depressing graphics here.

You can't help but be reminded of Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" when you look at this report's conclusions.

Climate of denial

Well, it was indeed a long meeting - just after 7pm before the close of business :-(

I do have to reflect whether there are possibly too many motions (look at that agenda again - item 10 has 17 motions!) being laid directly at the main Council Meeting - absolutely acknowledge that one of them was put there by me. It will probably settle down over the coming months, but a lot of yesterday was taken up by those motions.

Main, strategic item of business was the Edinburgh Tram Final Business Case - report here - which was passed with four-Party support (Libs/Labs/Tories/Greens) with the Nats opposing ... at least being consistent, if not - for me - rational.

I do applaud the Tories ongoing support for the Edinburgh Tram ... it's an open secret that several of their number have concerns, and I think they faced up to those yesterday with several good contributions from the Chamber floor. They didn't go for the easy option of sitting on the fence, and I really hope their focus on the long-term benefits of the project for Edinburgh will continue over the coming months.

Apart from trams, other items of interest were several debates (surprise, surprise) about finances ... there does still seem to be a denial amongst the ruling Coalition that they've yet taken any decisions to reduce services? What can I say ... do have another look at these reports from June and September's Full Council meeting were well over £5million and £10million of service reductions were approved by the Lib-Nat Coalition.

And having praised the Tories for their stance on trams, for the sake of balance, I was pretty aghast at their stance on the Al Gore film, "An Inconvenient Truth" - see item 10.17 on the agenda. It did really all smack of an attempt to continue to pour doubt on the climate change debate - I'm glad that 'no action' was the decision of the Council on this item.

... but, the Tories' balance-sheet has to be a positive 2-1 for Cllr. Whyte's verbal question to the Council Leader during the debate on her Leader's Report ... I'm paraphrasing here, but it was along the lines of "apart from changing the Committee Structure, can you name one other major initiative that you've commenced/completed since May" - answer: 10-minutes of dialogue about all the letters that have been sent by the ruling-Coalition to the Scottish Government.

A definite, direct hit :-)

Council Budget & Edinburgh University

More preparatory 2008/09 budget meetings this morning ... I have to say, even though it's nearly November (and budget day is only about 15-weeks away!) there are still huge uncertainties lurking around.

Now, to be fair, this is always - to some extent - the case when going through this process, but I do seriously sense even more 'doubt' about the general situation this year:

• the overall local government settlement isn't going to be announced until December (apparently?) and if that slips, which is feasible, then there will literally only be a few weeks left before Councils have to set their budgets
• no one seems to know with any certainty just what is going to happen around the whole issue of Council Tax this year, or next
• is local authority autonomy to settle Council Tax rates going to be removed or not?
• If it is, will there be 'fair and reasonable' financial compensation for the Council Tax assumptions that were made previously?

Obviously, the whole process is going to be very different for me in Opposition this year ... but I get the sense that, to be fair, it's also going to be pretty damned trying for the new Administration as they appear to be as much in the dark on some issues as everyone else.

None of which is good, and just reinforces my previous concerns about the 'central/local' relationship not having settled down since the elections in May.

I do hope my fears are unfounded.

Anyhow, a much more enjoyable afternoon was had - spent an hour or so speaking to Edinburgh University Students ... as per previous years ... and I didn't have to worry at all this year about being indiscreet :-)

Opposition does have some small benefits after all ...

... they are very small though :-(

Another long-meeting this Thursday?

October's Full Council meeting this Thursday - just look at the length of that (12-page!!) agenda :-(

I sadly sense another very, very long-meeting coming up :-((

... mind you, there is one glimmer of a 'bright new future' from the Council Leader - not only is she now being positive about Edinburgh, but check out the last paragraph of this months "Leader's Report" where she says:

"The question is no longer who is to blame, but what to do."

... now, personally, I think she means it - and despite the fact that 23-years of Opposition should have been plenty of time to think about 'what to do', I do welcome the sentiment and change in tone - but is she speaking just for herself?; or all of the Lib-Dems??; or also for her Nationalist partners ???

We'll see over the coming days I guess ...

Hamster Houdini

Not mentioned my media-starlet of a pet for a while ...

... well, this evening she managed to escape her cage yet again (amazing but true!) and evaded capture for several hours before being located within the same spare mattress that she now seems to reckon is her second home :-(

Needles to say, this has caused great hilarity within the flat all evening but has seriously disrupted my viewing of European football ...

Gould update ...

Several readers have been in touch re- my earlier post on the Gould Report ... basically saying that the report doesn't make it entirely clear whether the 'management of elections', which Gould certainly does recommend should rest with the Scottish Government and not Westminster, would include the actual voting system?

Well, my quick reading of the report is that it "could include" the voting system ... the Scotland Act (1998) would have to be re-opened anyhow if the recommendation to have all electoral management issues reside in Scotland was followed through - and that re-opening could obviously include the actual electoral system for Holyrood becoming a determination for the Scottish Parliament and not for Westminster.

Gould Report published

The Scottish Elections Review (Gould Report) has been published this morning - full details are now up on the Electoral Commission's website ... here.

From my admittedly pro-STV standpoint, I'm really pleased to read that:

"The report concludes that there is very little evidence to support the argument that the simultaneous local government election using STV contributed to the higher rejection rate in the Scottish parliamentary election. The evidence points instead to the combined Scottish parliamentary sheet as the cause of the problem."

There are also several other very positive references to the use of STV contained within the main report ... the vast, vast majority of the criticism is laid at the door of the incredibly late arrival of some of the legislation for the May 3rd elections and the overall, poor forward-planning by all concerned and the over-concentration with politics as opposed to the voter ... well, there is one way to quickly put the voter at the heart of the electoral process; and it's the use of STV for all levels of election, and to quickly scrap the use of AMS (for the Scottish Parliament elections) which woefully retains far too much control in the hands of [all] Party-machines.

And one very interesting issue flows from Gould's main recommendations ... as most readers will know, Westminster is currently in charge of overseeing the Holyrood elections with the Scottish Parliament having control of the local authority poll. Gould recommends that talks begin now on assigning responsibility for both elections to one body and suggests that the most "logical choice" would be to appoint the Scottish Government as that one body.

... so, if that comes to pass (and personally I think it would make sense) then will the SNP quickly legislate to change the Holyrood electoral system to STV in time for the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections?

It is after all their Party policy to implement STV for all levels of election and they WOULD secure a majority for the change within the Scottish Parliament.

I wonder??

... that really bad Burns

Some wag has just pointed out to me, whilst hardly being able to control his merriment, that if you go to Google and search for:

'that really bad Burns'

... then hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button; guess what you get?

At least it amused someone!

The modern treadmill

Back to the 'treadmill' today - Glen Orchy already seems a lifetime away and it's only 6.30pm on Monday evening :-(

... the three-and-a-half hour Group Meeting this afternoon was NOT exactly the most advisable way to return to the 'work regime' :-((

How many weeks until Christmas??