Why we must transform Edinburgh’s transport system – Cammy Day

Firstly, I hope you all had a great Christmas break, and thank you to those who worked over the festive period keeping us safe, and keeping the city going.

As we see the end of the winter festivities, work has already begun to bring our beautiful Princes Street Gardens back to their usual glory.

With our latest general election behind us, this of course wasn’t the result we had expected. I’d like to commend the hard work, efforts and commitment of all the candidates who stood for election and to our elected Members of Parliament whom I look forward to working with. For Labour we need to take stock of our results, elect a new UK leader to take us forward and engage with our voters. Labour remains a party of social justice, equality and compassion, values we should never leave.

As reported on these pages on Friday and over the weekend, our bold and ambitious City Mobility Plan is due to be considered by the transport committee on Thursday. This brings together great ambition to transform the city; to make our city centre more enjoyable and accessible for all. We’re seeking to allow our citizens and visitors to walk more, cycle, commute and get around easily, whilst addressing our 2030 carbon zero targets.

Devastating bushfires

Australia’s devastating bushfires have brought home the urgent need to act on climate change and cities all over the globe have a huge part to play in tackling it. Maintaining the status quo simply isn’t an option. Some of our exciting plans include: extending the tram to Newhaven, and hopefully soon into Granton Waterfront and beyond; rolling out Low Emission Zones; increasing our electric vehicle fleet and charging points across the city; expanding and promoting our popular City Car Club and Bike Hire scheme and exploring the use of electric bikes and e-scooters across the city. I would urge everyone to take part in the discussion and give us your views when the consultation opens on January 31.

Next, more chaos with the Tories at Westminster delaying a budget until 11 March. Current legislation states that local authorities must set council tax by 24 February every year. We, along with all other local authorities, are being put in a hugely challenging position to make decisions on budgets and council tax without any ideas of the financial settlement, and we have made Scottish Government ministers aware of our concerns.

Joint Burns Night/Chinese New Year celebrations

I hope we can see the UK and Scottish Governments recognise the importance of local government services and allow flexible approaches to council tax and other powers and fully fund your local services.

I was pleased to see the Scottish Government has listened to our calls and those of our communities for action on short-term lets. It’s slightly disappointing it will be another year before implementation, but action is long overdue, and this will help us licence and manage them much more effectively. I only hope the legislation allows for a licence and registration scheme to be fully funded and not put further pressure on local government finances. It’s time for our governments to give powers to local authorities to allow us to make informed decisions on managing our city.

As we head towards 25 January, we have amazing joint celebrations of our ever-famous ‘Burns Night’ which is combining with the Chinese Lunar New Year. The city is celebrating with many events – you can find out more at ww.burnsandbeyond.com.

Xinnián kuàilè, Gong hei fat choy (Happy New Year and all the best for 2020).

Cammy Day is the deputy leader of Edinburgh City Council