It’s been another busy month for the Edinburgh Green councillors, as the hubbub of festival time becomes a distant memory and we move towards winter.
The council has launched a consultation on introducing a transient visitor levy (TVL) or tourist tax – a proposal first mooted by Green councillors way back in 2011. If approved, it could raise in the region of £50m per year, and Greens are pushing to invest a reasonable proportion of that into solving the capital’s housing crisis. Watch this space and please respond to the consultation!
Chas and Susan (Green Group Co-Conveners)
Councillor highlights
Asked to pick one highlight from the month, our councillors said:
Alys Mumford
Alys has been working with groups in Portobello & Craigmillar over the past month who have been looking at taking over ownership of buildings to provide community hubs.
Ben Parker
Ben was shortlisted for Young Councillor of the Year at the Local Government Awards and the winner will be announced in November – fingers crossed!
Susan Rae
For Susan, October saw the end of the evidentiary hearings on short term lets (STLs). Evidence was taken from members of the trade, from those impacted by STLs and from community councils across the city.
Jule Bandel
Jule won agreement at Policy and Sustainability committee to engage more with people who have real experience of poverty to inform priorities across the Council committees and identify further opportunities for citizen co-design of Council services.
Kayleigh O’Neill
Re-established the long dormant Transport and Local Access Forum and was then elected Chair of the group!
Steve Burgess
Got agreement from the Pensions committee on two amendments to progress transition from investments in oil & gas into low carbon industry that both threatens the finances of the pension fund and flies in the face of the climate emergency.
Claire Miller
Claire has been making plans around green skills development and meeting employability partners across the city. This is especially key now that the Forth ‘green’ freeport has been agreed by the Council (without Green support!).
Alex Staniforth
At Policy & Sustainability Committee Alex passed a motion supporting a fair pay settlement for council workers and an amendment to the Smart Cities scheme ensuring the council will consider its environmental cost before recommending the use of AI.
Chas Booth
Chas has welcomed a monitoring report on the Leith low traffic neighbourhood which shows traffic on most roads in the scheme down by between 17% and 88%, with air pollution and traffic noise also improved, and will be pushing the council to make the scheme permanent.
Dan Heap
Dan has won support for proposals to fully recoup costs incurred form the council from large events such as the Taylor Swift and Oasis concerts, the vote on these proposals coming after his council question revealed that £40,000 of Council funds had gone to support the Taylor Swift concerts this summer.
Updates and upcoming
Committee updates and other things to look out for in the coming month:
Finance & Resources
Budget happens in February but with the Westminster budget due to be announced the end of this month, there will be something to consider as early as November.
Planning
The November planning meeting will be considering the ‘Edinburgh Design Guidance’ which sets out how development will be managed across the city over the next decade. It includes things like climate adaptation, cycle storage, and design of public spaces, so is a pretty important document – we’ll be trying to make it as robust as possible!
Health & Social Care
The EIJB is facing more massive cuts and is very much bad vibes. It is worth keeping an eye on this as there will undoubtedly be press and campaigns around this.