Bring back our buses

Here's news of a new campaign on even more cutbacks being imposed by the LibDem/SNP group who are now in charge of Edinburgh City Council. Send in details of bus cuts that are affecting you! http://bringbackourbuses.blogspot.com/

SNP Supporter Shares disappointment

Big thank you to the SNP supporter who emailed no2cuts@gmail.com to share their dismay at the SNP Council and governments impact on the city:

* * * * * * * *

I have recently qualified as a teacher in Edinburgh, and in the last election I voted for the SNP, based on the promises they made in various areas:

Class sizes of no more than 20 in Maths and English secondary schools
Movement towards full independence from the Westminster government
£2 000 help for first time property buyers
A commitment to more police on the streets.

Seemingly, the only election promise they have kept is the freeze on council tax which has meant that all the above proposals are not affordable and are being scrapped one by one.
As a result, even though I have spent the last 5 1/2 years working towards what I thought would be a career for life, and with an astronomical amount of student debt piled up, I have no option but to abandon my dream and look for work in another sector, probably working in a shop for minimum wage.

Is this the future that Alex Salmond invisaged for us?

Protest the cuts at Edinburgh City Chambers

Local organisations in North Edinburgh hit by the Fairer Scotland Fund grant cutbacks by the LibDem/SNP Council will be sending deputations to the Full Council meeting on Thursday 18 December which will make the final decision on the cuts. The meeting starts at 10 am - come along at 930 am and show the local groups affected your support!

LibDem/SNP Council Ignore Community Plea

The ruling SNP/LibDem coalition on Edinburgh City Council has rejected a plea by the local MP and MSP to think again about their proposals for big cuts to community projects in North Edinburgh (see below). Local Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm and MP Mark Lazarowicz, together with community representatives, went along to Edinburgh Council's Policy & Strategy Committee to plead with the Council's SNP/LibDem administration to reconsider their plans, but the ruling group forced them through.

However, a Labour amendment at the committee also gained the support of Tory and Green councillors. This means that the whole issue will come up again for final decision at a full meeting of Edinburgh City Council, on Thursday 18 December.
Local groups affected by the cuts are already mobilising to make their views heard at that meeting.

There's more details of the cuts on the North Edinburgh News website (one of the groups threatened with closure).

SNP slash Community Project Budgets

During the recent Forth By-election, the Lib Dem/SNP Council administration accused Labour of scaremongering about cuts to voluntary services across Edinburgh.

Just a week later, the LibDem SNP Council postponed a meeting set to decide the future of various projects in the North of Edinburgh until after the Forth by-election and it was widely condemned as a political motivated decision.

Sadly, just last week that postponed meeting took place and the Council slashed over £500,000 from voluntary services and projects across the North of Edinburgh. These cuts will effect thousands of local people either due to them loosing their jobs or vital serivces being lost. It's a disgrace.

Budgets slashed by Organisation

North Edinburgh News
From £73,102 to £35,000 - £38,102 Slashed

Pilton Equalities Project
From £55,452 to £32,000 - £23,452 Slashed

North West Carers
From £60,438 to £30,000 - £30,438 Slashed

North Edinburgh Childcare
From £403,394 to £350,714 - £53,220 Slashed

Black Community Development Project
From £114,370 to £50,000 - £64,370 Slashed

Granton Information Centre
From £123,708 to £102,353 - £21,355 Slashed

North Edinburgh Trust
From £199,374 to £100,000 - £99,374 Slashed

Stepping Stones
From £11,444 to £9,572 - £1872 Slashed

Women Supporting Women
From £69,016 to £35,000 - £34,016 Slashed

North Edinburgh Arts
From £29,694 to zero - £29,694 Slashed

PYCP
From £141,350 to £93,670 - £47,680 Slashed

Muirhouse Youth Development group
From £116,942 to £93,670 - £23,272 Slashed

NET Community Activist Training
From £35,848 to zero - £35,848 Slashed

NET Community Voices Fund
From £25,000 to zero - £25,000 Slashed

Muirhouse Millennium Centre
From £107,692 to £50,000 - £57,692 Slashed

Money vs Meals

This week 14 of Edinburgh's 18 state nurseries will stop serving hot food freshly prepared on site. It goes against every bit of advice from experts on school meals and good nutrition for Scotland's youngest and poorest kids. Stop these cuts by emailing Education Conveners: marilyne.macLaren@edinburgh.gov.uk and David.Beckett@edinburgh.gov.uk

Since the SNP took over the council last May, the children and families of Edinburgh have had to fight tooth and nail to keep their local schools and nurseries from closure, have had to accept crech facilities closing and endure increased fees for the ones they managed to save. The Go 4 it programme, a holiday activiites club which this year involved almost 1000 secondary school children, is being cut and potentially scrapped.

Physical education allocation is no longer guarenteed, school meals are being increased by 10p from August and now parents have to fight to keep school kitchens open so that their children's health, education and nutrition is no compromised. This is not what the SNP Government promised in its manifesto, it is certainly not a record to be proud of and the parents of Edinburgh and beyond have had enough.

THE FACTS:

- Every Primary and Secondary school in Edinburgh is being forced to take a 1.5%-2.0% budget cut

- This basically amounts to at least a £10,000 reduction per average Primary School, at least a £10,000 reduction per average Special School and at least a £50,000 reduction per average Secondary School

- School meals are being increased by 10p from August

- The Council's 'Youth Services' are being slashed by £357,000

- 'Community Learning and Development' is being cut by by the full-year equivalent of £850,000

Why has my bus fare gone up 10p ?

Labour MPs, MSPs and councillors have all challenged the SNP Government to reverse its 10p tax on Edinburgh bus users.

When fuel duty rose by 2p in October, Gordon Brown announced a special rebate for public transport operators in order to keep fares low as the price of fuel rose. In England this means no fares increased.

In Scotland, Alex Salmond and the SNP who received their share of the additional money, worth £7.5 million, chose to spend it elsewhere - leaving Scottish bus users to pick up the bill.

Feeling angry? Email no2cuts@gmail.com and we will pass on the message.

Knowing that the SNP’s 3 year budget has no contingency plan for rising fuel costs, Labour activists formed the Short-Changed Campaign, which takes to the streets and bus stops of Edinburgh this Friday.

Ricky Henderson, Edinburgh Labour’s Transport Spokesperson said: "Bus passengers in Edinburgh will be puzzled as to why they’re paying more tax on their bus fares than people in England. It’s just not fair. It was so easy to find a £1 coin for the bus, but that extra 10p is total hassle and is leaving 1000s of bus users across Edinburgh short changed."

Nigel Grifffiths MP said: "Alex Salmond cares more about banqueting in Bute House than Bus fares in Edinburgh. That’s where the money has gone - pomp and ceremony instead of public services. He simply must release the money to reverse this SNP Tax on bus users now."

George Foulkes MSP said: "It is Alex Salmond and the SNP’s arrogance and complacency which is forcing Edinburgh fares up. Only too aware of rising fuel costs, Gordon Brown gave the nations extra money in the form of a fuel duty rebate so that bus operators could keep fares low. Alex Salmond got the cash but didn’t bother to pass on the money - now bus fares are rising for the first time in years and were all paying the price."

50% of Creches closing and £2 fee increase hailed as a victory by SNP

Following angry protests from Edinburgh Parents, the SNP Lib Dem Council has dropped plans to close all but 2 city creches and has instead opted to close just 50% of city facilities and increase the charges to cover the difference.

Plan B is being hailed as a victory by SNP Councillors despite the fact that it put creche services even further out of the reach of the city's poorest families. The SNP seem to forget that it was they who seconded the £300,000 to Edinburgh Leisure funding leading to these cuts.

Anger as Latest Cuts hit Creches

Edinburgh SNP Leader today said: "Edinburgh Leisure's job is to provide sports facilities - not childcare." A slap in the face to Edinburgh's hardworking families.

With the SNP voting through a £300,000 to Edinburgh Leisure services all bit two of the city's creches will close. Parents across the city reacted with anger as their ability to use key city public services was lost at a swipe of a pen.

What has the council got against hard-working families? 320 full time nursery places gone, nearly £1million in surestart services for Edinburgh's most vulnerable services lost, community education services cut, school budgets cut - now creche services.

Council budget cuts meetings

This from the Evening News, reporting how the cuts got through:

It was never going to be a run-of-the-mill council meeting. And right from the off at the Lothian Chambers yesterday, the Lib Dem/SNP administration was left in no doubt that getting its first budget passed was going to be a slog.

Amid chants of "no more cuts" and whistle blowing from around 50 Unison protestors outside, councillors at first struggled to make themselves heard.

Luckily the campaigners had no plans to disrupt the entire meeting, though it was still six-and-a-half hours before the administration finally prevailed.

In the interim, spectators were greeted to a multitude of speeches – many far longer than decorum dictated – alongside heartfelt pleas, accusations of lying and scaremongering, riotous laughter, and pantomime-style boos and applause.

Opposition politicians were given their first taste of what was to come at around 11am, when council officials produced copies of the Evening News revealing the administration's plans.

A short while later, finance leader Gordon Mackenzie presented the plans to the council.

"Today marks a significant milestone for the coalition," he said. "Sceptics said this coalition wouldn't last, and indeed there were times last year when it looked like they, maybe, had a point. But today shows the coalition is resolute, it is radical, it is listening."

That did not convince everyone in the Chamber though, as the opposition highlighted what they said were swingeing cuts that will have a "long-term negative impact on young people and families throughout Edinburgh".

The budget includes plans to force individual schools to make efficiency savings of 1.5 per cent – around £2.5 million across the city – alongside controversial cutbacks to community learning, and the withdrawal of grant money for some voluntary organisations.

Labour claimed the reduction in grants would amount to £2.6m, although the administration insisted the cuts only total £780,000. The details of which organisations will lose out has yet to be made public.

Yesterday's meeting attracted seven different community groups, who all made last-ditch appeals to councillors for more cash – all of which failed.

Representatives from the Cameron House community centre management committee, the City Federation of Community Centres and the Edinburgh Adult Education Group all warned against cutbacks to the community learning budget, with plans to axe a total of 16 posts.

Next up was long-standing community activist Tina Woolnough, founder of the pressure group Parents in Partnership, who criticised the efficiency savings being forced on schools.

"This is the wrong thing to do," she said. "School budgets are already starved."

Representatives from the Blackhall Community Association urged councillors to reconsider plans to curtail the subsidised number 13 Lothian Buses service, and the Moira Park Sheltered Housing Tenants' Association rounded on the administration for issues on care of the elderly.

Regarding cutbacks to voluntary organisations, spokeswoman Phyllis Heriot – a former councillor herself – said: "I wouldn't like that on my conscience. How do you sleep at night?"

Lib Dem and SNP councillors claimed that their budget will "look after the elderly and vulnerable" with an "astonishing array of services to the people who live in Edinburgh".

The budget includes £13m in extra cash for vulnerable members of society, £33m as a contribution towards five new schools, £21m for Meadowbank and the Royal Commonwealth Pool, £20m-a-year on roads and pavements, and £5m for pitches and pavilions.

Council leader Jenny Dawe rounded on Labour for "scaremongering", accusing group leader Ewan Aitken – who earlier fell ill and was forced to go home – of spending "the last few weeks doing down this city".

Labour councillors spent the next ten minutes trying to persuade Lord Provost George Grubb to permit votes on a variety of amendments to the administration's budget – which proved fruitless. Presenting the party's alternative budget – which pledges to avoid cuts in schools and community learning – deputy leader Ian Perry said: "There is £110m additional money available for the council, and if that money is managed properly there is no need to cut or threaten to cut any services."

The Tory group presented its alternative budget with an unexpected promise of a one per cent cut in council tax, alongside the largest investment in roads and pavements of all parties.

Leader Iain Whyte said: "People in Edinburgh last May voted for what they thought was change. Today, we put forward a budget that will bring about real change."

The three Green councillors also produced an alternative budget, pledging to avoid education cutbacks and with £11m earmarked for a revamp of Meadowbank Stadium.

SNP group leader Steve Cardownie accused Labour's Holyrood leader Wendy Alexander of an "absolute lie" when she wrote in the News recently that Gorgie City Farm was under threat.

But Labour's Andrew Burns hit back at the administration for "having the cheek to accuse us of scaremongering". He added: "Edinburgh has had two decades of protection for the vulnerable, and support for schools. This was a good council getting better – but it's not anymore."

Green councillor Steve Burgess said he had "grave concerns" about the administration's budget: "The cuts will impact on people who need council support."

Shortly before 4.30pm, councillors voted on each of their respective budgets resulting in 29 votes for the administration, 14 for Labour, 11 for the Tories and three for the Greens.

As the weary politicians departed, veteran Tory councillor Allan Jackson commented: "This is my 32nd budget. Today has been fully predictable."