The last month has been dominated by council budget discussions at the City Chambers, and the highlight of the Green budget was our proposal, led by Ben Parker, to invest in council housing using general council funds, rather than limiting investment in housing to what council tenants pay in rents.
Whilst requiring Scottish Government approval, this was a budget first for any local authority in Scotland. Although our budget was not passed, the principle of spending in this way was accepted by council officers, which marks a significant Green win on its own.
At Full Council earlier in the month, one key highlight was Alys Mumford bringing a motion calling for the council to endorse the position of the Scottish Government in calling for the UK government to remove ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ conditions for migrants. These conditions cruelly limit the support and services available to many people. The council will now write to the UK Government calling for an end to this racist policy.
Chas and Susan
Green group Co-Conveners
Councillor highlights from the month
Alex Staniforth
This month Alex continued his work on the Council budget. Whilst the Labour administration did not accept any of the Green proposals, we remain optimistic that we have planted the seed for more radical, better and bolder budgets for Edinburgh in the future.
Alys Mumford
Alys has broken her ankle, so has been having to work from home throughout February, but it hasn’t stopped her dealing with the ward issues including the ever-delightful complaints of human poo on Portobello beach!
Ben Parker
Ben was pleased to work with Alex to ensure that the Green budget included funding to reduce management fees relating to the council’s retrofit programme. Living Rent have highlighted that some residents have received bills of £40k in management fees alone for this work, and Ben has worked closely with them over the past year.
Chas Booth
Chas is delighted that the Leith ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ has finally been made permanent and is asking council officers to look at expanding them across the city.
Claire Miller
In the city centre ward, unfortunately plans for the Braidwood Centre to be re-opened have fallen through and Claire has been working to support residents to understand what happened and find other ways to re-open this important community centre
Dan Heap
Dan has been working on getting Gorgie Farm funding to make it safe for people to enter the site, and to fund a development manager to take the project forward and apply for external funding.
Jule Bandel
Jule has been taking some time off due to ill health.
Kayleigh O’Neill
Kayleigh has been supporting SHRUB co-op apply for new premises to continue their great work after they have been threatened with closure.
Steve Burgess
Steve was pleased to see reversals to cuts for transition teachers and pupil support assistants for P1 and P2 children agreed by council in its Full Council meeting. Sadly, the £500k in the Green budget for ‘Holiday Hubs’ was not agreed.
Susan Rae
Susan has been taking some time off due to ill health.
Committee updates and other things to look out for in the coming month
Housing, Homelessness & Fair work
Ben has an exciting motion at the next Housing Committee to encourage the council to be ‘rent control ready’ once the legislation for rent controls passes in Holyrood.
Culture & Communities
Committee will be reviewing the impact of the city’s first Firework Control Zones, championed by Dan.