March 2017
Make your vote count!
In just under eight weeks’ time, Scotland will head to the polls for
the Scottish Council elections – your chance to have your say in how services
are delivered where you live.
In 2012, less than half (43%) of the
electorate turned out to vote and so I really would encourage you and your
family to take part.
As with last year’s Scottish Parliament
elections, 16 and 17-year-olds are eligible to vote on 4 May – a first for
Council elections. But remember that they – and anyone else who’s eligible –
MUST be registered first before they can take part. And if you’ve recently
changed address, don’t forget that you’ll need to re-register to vote.
Registration ends at midnight on Monday 17
April. Visit gov.uk/register-to-vote today to make sure your vote counts.
______________________________________________________
Cooperative Capital
When we launched our Cooperative Capital framework back in 2012, we
aspired to develop a new relationship with service users, citizens, communities
and partner agencies across the City, with more focus placed upon ‘doing
things with people’, rather than ‘to them’.
Since then, we’ve reported back regularly on progress and at our annual conference held late last year, 80 delegates from across the public, third and
community sectors, reflected upon the main successes and challenges of the
Framework to date.
These included an increase in the number of coops and social
enterprises; improvements in community engagement through Neighbourhood
Partnerships, such as participatory budgeting; asset transfer projects; more
transparency in council decision making; and the implementation of the living
wage.
I am delighted with the progress we have made over the past five years –
and sincerely hope it provides a platform for the Council to continue to ‘do good
things’ with the people of Edinburgh in future.
______________________________________________________
Our Edinburgh
We all know how frustrating dropped litter,
fly-tipping and overflowing bins can be, that’s why we’ve been making every
effort to address issues like this through our Waste and Cleansing Improvement
Plan, which is already making progress.
As part of this, we’ve seen the innovative Our Edinburgh campaign make great
strides to generate pride in our surroundings amongst the public, discouraging
things like littering, dog fouling and the misuse of communal bins with bright
posters, online videos and community engagement.
That’s why I’m very pleased to hear the
campaign has been shortlisted as a finalist for both ‘Best Campaign’ and
‘Programme of the Year’ at this year’s Keep
Scotland Beautiful Awards, recognising efforts to improve the cleanliness
and quality of the environment for the public. Good luck to all those involved!
______________________________________________________
Award winning designs
More positive news for
our schools building programme as James Gillespie’s High School scooped two
awards at the recent Scottish
Property Awards winning both Public Buildings
categories in the Architectural Excellence and Development of the Year
categories.
This academic year has
seen two new state-of-the-art high schools for James Gillespie’s and Portobello
High open with more in the pipeline. The new Boroughmuir will open in August
and, just this week, final demolition work started on the tower block on the
old Portobello High School site which will result in a new St John’s RC Primary
opening in August 2018.
With an additional
£6.7m to tackle rising rolls in next year’s budget, this shows our commitment
to providing our young learners with the best possible educational environment
to thrive in.
______________________________________________________
20mph rollout
Our 18-month rollout of slower speeds for
residential, shopping and city streets took a big step forward with the ‘go
live’ of Phase 2 in North and South Central / East Edinburgh on 28 February.
From Granton to Portobello to Duddingston to Morningside, 20 is now plenty on
many more of our roads, with a strategic network of streets maintained at 30 or
40mph.
We carried out extensive public consultation and research
in planning this rollout, which found that most people in the Capital want
speeds brought down around homes, shops and in the city centre. Slower speeds
don’t just make our streets safer for everyone, they also make them a nicer
place to be.
Find out which streets have changed, and
when 20mph is coming to your area, on our dedicated 20mph for Edinburgh pages.
______________________________________________________
Leith Street works planned
Work is already under way on the £1 billion
Edinburgh St James development, a hugely important project
for the Capital which will create thousands of jobs and deliver millions of
pounds to the local economy.
Later this month, the Transport and
Environment Committee will consider a report outlining plans by the developer
to carry out major essential works on Leith Street.
Provisionally scheduled to begin after this
summer’s festivals, the work would include closing Leith Street between its
junction at Waterloo Place down to Calton Road to cars, buses and vans for 44
weeks. Access for pedestrians, cyclists and emergency services will be
maintained throughout the works.
We have been working extremely closely with
the developer to identify the best way of carrying out these works safely and
in a way that keeps the closure period to a minimum. We
will continue to monitor the impact of the work and ensure the developer keeps
the public properly informed at all times.
______________________________________________________
Supreme Court to sit in Edinburgh
Following an approach to the Council, it
has been agreed that the UK Supreme Court will sit in the Edinburgh City
Chambers in June. This is the first time that the UK’s highest court has sat
outside London.
Several appeals will
be heard during the week commencing 12 June, with at least five of the Supreme
Court Justices sitting over the course of the visit. The list of cases to be
heard during the visit are in the process of being finalised.
Provision will be made for extensive public
seating for those interested in observing proceedings at first hand while court
staff will also use the opportunity to offer public talks about its work when
the Justices are not sitting. Further
information will be available from their website in due course.
______________________________________________________
Stay in the picture
Keep yourself in the picture with our news section online.
If you
wish to unsubscribe please email us. Watch
live full Council and some committee meetings on our webcast.
Join the debate on Twitter #edinwebcast
Follow us on twitter Watch on our webcast Follow us on Facebook
 |
Watch our webcasts
|
 |
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment