Tonight (September 23rd) a public meeting
for the Southside of the City took place. It was held to discuss the
implications of the financial constraints of Council activity for the
decisions to be taken in the coming months. It was for residents from
the Meadows/ Morningside, Southside/ Newington and Liberton/Gilmerton
wards. (population approx 95,000). I
counted 77 people in the room at Southside Community Centre, of whom 15
were council officials and a further 11 were councillors. So there
were just over 50 members of the public. The majority of them I knew
or recognised which indicated that very few attended from the
Liberton/Gilmerton ward. The majority were people who have contact with
the council through Community Councils, Neighbourhood Partnerships or
other formal relationship. The
questions and comments were measured and articulate and comments from
the Council officials were usually very informative and responses to the
point and at times forceful. Dave Anderson, Director of City
Development, for example, responded to the strong anti-tram sentiments
robustly. Andrew Unsworth was immediate in answering the question on
how much the new (but stuttering) Council website cost. (£300k). There
was the now customary (this was the third of these meetings) criticism
of the framing of the questions (too simplistic and imprecise to be
answered with a 'Yes' or 'No'). One of the eight questions attracted
45 votes but most were answered by only 28 to 35 of those members of the
public present. (A few left before the end.) But
doubts about the interpretation of the answers and the trams issue did
not stop the meeting from going on to cover the issues posed in a broad
and lively exchange of information, questions and answers. And it was well moderated by Kenny Kemp. All was recorded and at some stage there will be a summary made available. The background information can be accessed from here - and the questions posed can be found at the end of this booklet. NB Numbers given for people present may not be exact. I was seated near the front and did not the best of views. from Southside & Newington Newsblog by Cameron Rose
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