Edinburgh Council has been marking its own homework. My assessment is a little different – John McLellan

A report this week says the council performs well for integrity, ethical values, rule of law, openness, engagement with citizens and service users, vision, public financial management, business planning, and capability of leadership.

But before you think the Fringe cancellation was but a dream, the paper was a self-assessment against a “good governance” framework – the council marking its own homework.

No organisation is perfect and people rarely love their local authority, but I’d wager my next Council Tax instalment that most Edinburgh residents would struggle to marry the self-congratulations to their experience. So let’s go through it.

Ethics and integrity: Everything is relative, but the council has just had to launch an independent inquiry into its culture and practices because of serious allegations raised by whistle-blowers going back years – at a cost already expected to hit £600,000 -- so this plaudit seems somewhat premature, if not pre-judgemental.

Rule of law: Leaked information suggests that the council has pressed on with the low-traffic neighbourhood changes to East Craigs despite advice it could be open to legal challenge. As local campaigners are gearing up for just such a test, again it might be a bit early for back-slapping.

Openness: The council’s external auditor this week said performance reporting to councillors lacked “specific targets and performance measures to allow monitoring of progress”. This is something the Conservative group has highlighted repeatedly, yet over three years into this administration we are still waiting.

Engagement: With a sample of 5,000, the annual Edinburgh people survey is a good measurement of attitudes, so from that angle maybe praise is justified. But satisfaction questions are so broad they are not specific to the council, but are then used to affirm its actions. Similarly, other “engagement” processes are too often constructed on a self-selecting basis and without standard demographic balancing are designed to produce answers the administration wants.

Financial management: Pre-Covid, the authority was a victim of the inexplicable squeeze on resources by the Scottish government which the local SNP did little to counter, but nevertheless last year it fell £8.9m short of its savings target and the auditors spotted an over-spend of £4.9m which had to be covered from reserves. With the pandemic crisis, auditors now say the reserves “may now be insufficient to face its future financial challenges”.

The council can’t be blamed for the virus, but the piggy bank is effectively empty so balancing income and expenditure has never been more vital and it has lost its ability to cope with more unexpected costs. The whistle-blowing inquiry, for example, could easily exceed the £600,000 currently allocated as that only covers the first phase. The tram project relies on Lothian Buses contributing £21m over three years which is now a non-starter. And there is also a threat of a massive compensation claim from the Granton Marina development.

Business planning: At least if this is good, we will know sooner than later when the dosh runs dry.

But what can be said for vision and capability of leadership? At risk of having my collar felt by the standards people, let’s just say they deserve full-marks for self-belief. Others might say delusion.

John McLellan is a Scottish Conservative councillor for the Craigentinny and Duddingston ward

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