Surgery this evening ...

Regular weekly surgery this evening at 6pm ... the very last one of this 4-year term ;-(

Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart ballot paper

... and here is a mock up of the Ward 9 Fountainbridge/ Craiglockhart ballot paper ...

... (again if you click on it, it comes up as a much clearer image).

Now, I'm obviously very biased ... and I won't bang on about how you should consider voting ... but graphic below is a clue to how I'll be casting my own, personal vote at around 7.01am this coming Thursday ;-))

Edinburgh Central ballot paper

As promised earlier ... here is a mock-up of the Lothian Region/Edinburgh Central ballot paper.

Not sure how well it will show up on the blog (if you click on it, it comes up as a much clearer image) ... pretty lengthy 'Lothian Region' left-hand side, as you can see, but only the four main Party candidates on the Edinburgh Central Constituency right-hand side.

Still believe this is the only "all-female" constituency contest in Scotland ... does anyone know for certain?

Exhaustion

Sunday evening exhaustion well and truly set in ... 'lampost poster fever' over for a few days - just got to take the damn things down next weekend now ;-((

Lamppost Posters

It's Sunday, so it must be lamppost posters ... I can hardly contain my excitement.

Campaign Mania

"Campaign Mania" now well and truly set in ... every single party activist, from whatever political persuasion, rushing around the city trying to complete 2,376 tasks before 7am this coming Thursday and the opening of polling.

Bit disappointed as we only managed to finish off 2,374 today ;-))

Director's Weekly Meeting ...

Director's weekly meeting yesterday morning - was such a frantic day thereafter that I didn't even have time to log on to the blog and register an entry ... shocking how time-consuming this democracy business is ;-))

Last Director's meeting of the current 4-year term ;-(

Full Council Meeting ...

Last Full Council Meeting (of this four-year term!) today ... agenda can be found here.

Bit of a delayed start to the proceedings, due to the official opening of the new Waverley Court Council HQ earlier in the morning.

Thereafter, the main agenda was completed in a surprisingly short time ...

One week to go!

Only one week (seven days!) to go ... and still so much to do.

Do always enjoy the final stages of an election campaign ... this one generating an incredibly hectic pace in the dash for the finishing line ;-))

Bit of a 'Thank You' ...

Much later this afternoon, Ewan (Council Leader and fellow blogger!) organised a bit of a 'Thank You' for all the staff involved in finalising the second-round of the new school building programme ... good to be able to pass on our gratitude for the huge amount of behind-the-scenes work that has gone in to this project.

Very late evening again; election, election, election mania definitely in full-swing ...

Elections Consultative Group meeting

Elections Consultative Group meeting later this afternoon ... bound to be a pretty robust discussion about postal voting, given the slight delay in the dispatch of papers for all of Edinburgh ...

... not to mention another 20 or so Local Authorities across Scotland apparently ;-((

Children 1st meeting

Brief meeting with Children 1st this morning ... part of an ongoing dialogue about a variety of funding issues.

Constructive relationships now built up - would be a shame to lose them at the end of next week ;-((

How to cast your vote ...

Well done the BBC Scotland website ... this is the clearest description of how to cast your vote (for whatever Party!) that I've yet seen - well worth a quick look.

Still hoping to display some mock-ups of my own ballot paper soon ;-))

Last Full Group Meeting ...

Quite unbelievably, we have a Full Council meeting (agenda here) this coming Thursday - six days before an election ;-((

Thus, one last Full Group Meeting (of this Administration, I hasten to add!) to attend this evening ... let's hope it doesn't drag on too long, so we can get back on the never-ending campaign-trail ...

Royston Primary School

Out to Royston Primary School this morning to meet some parent's representatives ... bit of anxiety over changes in the proposed number of full-time places at the Nursery Class within the school.

With Elizabeth's (local councillor and fellow blogger!) help, took the parents through the proposed changes, making it clear that we will keep it under review and certainly amend if the Department's projections are badly wrong ... which isn't usually the case, but the guarantee of review is there.

One big positive that I felt may have come out of the meeting is the potential establishment of a Parent Council at the Primary School, which doesn't currently have one ... every cloud has a silver-ling, as they say ;-)

ALP Hustings ...

Adult Learning Project hustings later this evening, at Tollcross Community Centre. All 7 main parties represented on the platform ... sign of the 'PR times'.

Good event, enjoyed the evening, with a pretty reasonable turnout for a (mainly) local hustings ... not enough of them organised really.

One downside of the 7 parties at the top table is a ridiculously short time for each respondent to answer questions ... very difficult to get a lengthy dialogue going. That said, the chair was scrupulously fair and gave us all an equally short crack-of-the-whip!

Gorgie Dalry Community Association

Early evening and off to a meeting of the Gorgie Dalry Community Association ... primarily to continue the dialogue over concerns with the potential redevelopment of the Tynecastle area, and the move of the current Tynecastle Nursery School.

Robust and healthy discussion/debate ... just as it should be!

Last Group Executive meeting

Last 'Labour Group Executive' meeting, before the election, first thing this afternoon.

Looking at the schedule of such meetings post-election, there appears to be one every five seconds in order to get any new political arrangements up and running as quickly as possible ... just when I thought there were only 9-days to go ;-((