Edinburgh council leader Adam McVey is right to highlight city’s achievements – Steve Cardownie

The City of Edinburgh Council leader, Adam McVey, has compiled a “mid-term” report on the work of the city’s administration. In office since 2017, the SNP/Labour coalition has notched up some notable achievements and the council leader has taken the opportunity to itemise many of them.

No doubt smarting from some unwarranted criticism, he has decided to set the record straight in an effort to highlight the many positive initiatives undertaken by the administration.

The highlights include an investment of £107 million in school upgrades (eight new schools completed or in the process of being built), 3500 new affordable homes built in addition to the £62 million that has been invested in existing council housing, as well as the recently announced plans to spend £2.5 billion on building thousands of new council houses and repairing existing council houses over the next ten years.

A tree-planting programme which has seen the establishment of 12,000 new trees has gone some way to improving the environment and £60m has been devoted to a new cycling infrastructure to help and encourage people to use pedal power to ­navigate their way through the city.

A vision for the future

The council has worked with the Scottish ­Government to establish a £25m skills programme in an attempt to extend opportunities to all the communities that make up the city and to make Edinburgh a world leader in data ­science, which should hopefully ensure that the city’s economic performance will remain strong for years to come.

Concerned that opponents spend more time attacking the administration’s ambition without offering viable alternatives, Councillor McVey has set out the coalition’s vision for the future, encompassing a sustainable, inclusive approach where economic success is shared throughout the city, prompting the setting up of a poverty commission two years ago which has ­identified points of action that the council, private business, other public sector bodies and charities have taken on board to ensure that the city’s success is shared by all.

Major strategies have been launched in the fields of tourism, moving the city away from self promotion to better managing it for residents and ­visitors; transport, as stakeholders are invited to help shape future policy decisions; and the environment, where strong leadership will be required if Edinburgh is to successfully clean up its act on air quality and reach its emissions target of net-zero carbon by 2030.

Over the remainder of the coalition’s term of office, plans include drastically reducing carbon emissions across the city, tackling poverty and transforming transport options by making bus, tram, cycling and walking convenient and efficient for the Edinburgh public.

Thousands more trees are to be planted and three new schools are to be built, with major financial investment in two more, as well as plans for the introduction of a ‘tourist tax’ with the additional sums realised being invested back into the city.

Things going belly up

The ­council is also set to use the new ­powers that will be given to it next spring, that will allow it to exert greater control of short-term lets and their proliferation throughout ­Edinburgh, bringing much-needed relief to many communities.

It is recognised in most quarters that the council has a tough job in running a city of more half a million people and that things will go belly up from time to time – but it is obvious that the council leader feels that some critics have unjustifiably attacked the administration, concentrating on the negative whilst ignoring the positive (if they didn’t, I suppose that they could not be labelled critics) and has now made an effort to set the record straight.

There will no doubt be challenges ahead and tough decisions will have to be made if the number of critics is to be reduced and the city’s future safeguarded.

But, the administration has set out its stall and is intent on remaining at the helm until their term of office expires – and not a day before.

The last two coalitions that controlled the council ran their full length and although sometimes it may have been a little rocky, the political will was there to see it through and I have little doubt that the current coalition will follow suit.