Edinburgh Labour saves CAB Offices!

Is this the quickest campaign victory in the history of Scottish Local Government??

• on Tuesday of this week, I mentioned that CAB Edinburgh (CAE) were going to close 4 out of their 5 local offices.
  


• on Wednesday of this week, the Evening News ran the story.
  


• on that day (do read the press coverage) - less than 48 hours ago - the SNP/Lib-Dem Coalition said they had been at an "extremely productive meeting and in coming to the decision to centralise their services, CAE gave reassurances to the council that service provision would be maintained at exactly the same level, regardless of where clients live within the city." No coalition attempt was made to reverse the decision.
  


• on that day (again, do read the press coverage) - our Labour Group spokeswoman on these issues, Lesley Hinds, said: "There is no way a single centralised office can do the work of five offices."
  


• on Thursday (yesterday) sustained pressure from Labour politicians across the city led to a series of frantically arranged meetings with the CAE Board.
  


• on Friday (today) the CAE Board have just announced they are "suspending the closures of the Pilton, Leith, Fountainbridge, and Portobello offices pending a further consultation".

What an utter and total shambles!

The result - for now - may be positive, but do note I've emboldened the word 'suspending' from the CAE announcement.

Don't forget that one of the threatened offices was in Pilton (near the Forth Ward), and I'd be willing to take any bets that this whole issue will come back AFTER the 6th November by-election ...

... but if you ask me; the best way to ensure this type of ridiculous, local political mismanagement stops is to send a very clear message to the SNP/Lib-Dem Coalition at said by-election.