Edinburgh faces tough decisions – Cammy Day

As you read this, I hope some of the Covid-19 regulations have been relaxed – it’s been a hugely challenging time for all of us trying to adapt to a new way of life, work and socialising.

Like me, I’m sure you have all ventured into the new world of Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams and more, to keep in touch with work, friends and loved ones, and that we all crave for further relaxations to allow us to meet our friends and family to catch up.

On council business, I was pleased to have moved our motion on Black Lives Matter showing the commitment the council has, not being complacent of our work, reviewing and working with esteemed black rights activists like Sir Geoff Palmer and the BAME community.

As I’ve said, for me this isn’t about buildings and names, nor about politicians, it’s about listening and acting on the views of the BAME community across the city. The Labour group also moved key motions on ensuring equalities and fairness was at the heart of how we come out of Covid-19, ensuring that everyone is treated with fairness and respect.

On other issues, whist we strive to pay the Living Wage to our staff, I’m pleased to see the Scottish Government announce they will continue to support it, that however can’t just be warm words. For Edinburgh to pay our amazing social care staff at least the living wage they deserve, we need to see the Scottish Government fully fund their announcements. Confirmed funding so far leaves us £3.5 million short compared to what we need, which will only result in service cuts, so please lobby your MSP to ensure our care workers, who have continued to care for the most in need during Covid-19, get the living wage they more than deserve.

Council funding has taken a huge hit with loss of income, and additional costs. Even after significant use of the council’s reserves, we currently estimate a gap of at least £30m, with any unfunded costs of schools reopening only adding to this and we will need to make some difficult decisions as we go forward. We must ensure we continue to tackle key issues around poverty in the city, and that our sustainability commission challenges all of the city to act now.

As we all use our parks, green spaces and beaches even more it’s great to see so many people choosing to cycle, walk and run around our beautiful city. I hope more of us see travel by these means as their “new norm” however as we all did before... let’s not leave piles of rubbish on the streets and parks and plan ahead if you are needing the loo!

Edinburgh will bounce back soon, so let’s look after our amazing city we all call home.

Cllr Cammy Day is the Labour group leader at Edinburgh City Council

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