Edinburgh’s SNP should blame the SNP Government – John McLellan

With school pupils set to return to full-time education in four weeks’ time, working parents will be hoping for some semblance of normality too and it also extends to pre-schoolers.

Problems will arise if facilities used by nurseries are needed for infant schools, but if social distancing will not be necessary for such youngsters there will be an expectation that nurseries can re-open too.

Council-owned community centres are used for play groups and nurseries, so what will happen if the council decides they should remain closed until October as is currently the plan?

Ex-councillor Steve Cardownie is not the only one confused by senior members of the council administration claiming they can’t get straight answers as to why community centres can’t re-open and Mr Cardownie rightly said in these pages this week that if elected members who run the administration want answers they should have them.

We on the opposition benches know how it feels. Officers are supposed to serve all councillors equally but we regularly have to remind them that we too represent voters and have a right to know what’s going on before the administration broadcasts its latest triumph in a press release.

Don’t believe a word of it. Senior officers and administration councillors are in lockstep and if committee conveners want something badly enough they can get it.

It’s a bit rich blaming officials when the one thing SNP councillors won’t do is blame the SNP Government for not giving a sustainable budget.

Moredun still green

I can’t claim credit for the decision to shelve a housing proposal at Moredunvale Green – that’s due to the instant local campaign – but I did point out the contradiction between building on urban parkland and the council’s own policies.

The City Council’s Choices 2030 prospectus specified a new “extra-large green space standard” and last week’s column questioned a plan that would halve an amenity next to high-rise flats.

Lo and behold, the council will now wait until the Local Development Plan is completed before deciding whether to continue the survey, but campaigners are right to be wary and need to look out for the Local Development Plan next year.

Elephant in the city

With the full recovery of tourism months if not years away, who knows what the travel market will look like when the controversial centrepiece W hotel opens at the new St James centre in 2022.

The announcement that the Centre’s shopping mall opening has been put back from October to spring 2021 is still remarkable given construction restrictions, as is the determination to open the cinema, restaurants and aparthotel next year as previously planned.

As retailers like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein gather under the St James’s roof, it’s unlikely to be a white elephant.

But with a huge gym being built in the basement of the Princes Street site previously occupied by BHS, the elephant remaining in the room is, with a city council taking at best a tepid attitude towards the visitor economy revival, what shape the rest of the city centre takes.

Transphobia furore

Given the transphobia furore caused by one social media message from JK Rowling, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would chose to vandalise her Edinburgh Award hand-print in the City Chambers Quad.

I have no desire to enter the whys and wherefores of the transphobia debate and while people are entitled to disagree with her, the whole “cancel” campaign which aims to deny freedom of expression is alarming.

The right to speak out is essential for minority voices to be heard and closing down freedom of speech cuts both ways.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to the Edinburgh Evening News online and enjoy unlimited access to trusted, fact-checked news and sport from Edinburgh and the Lothians. Visit www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director