Edinburgh council will bid to survive local government shake-up - and press for a referendum on any change
Capital will argue it needs its own authority to continue success
Edinburgh council is to make the case for the city to retain its own local authority in any shake-up of councils by the Scottish Government - and councillors agreed to call for a local referendum on any plans for major change to the Capital's boundaries.
The government announced last month it wanted to replace Scotland's current 32 councils with between six and 10 regional authorities and up to 160 community authorities, citing Leith as an example.
And although there are still few details, it looks like that would mean Edinburgh council would effectively be abolished.
But council leader Jane Meagher said the Capital needed to "retain its autonomy to further develop the successes we have achieved".
In a motion to the council's policy and sustainability committee, she said Edinburgh had a long history of delivering high-quality services despite being the lowest funded council in Scotland and had played a leading role across the UK in developing policies like the Visitor Levy.
And she added: "This would not likely have been possible without a strong city local authority."
She said Edinburgh performed well economically, with figures showing the city's GDP per head overtook London's for the first time last year. And she warned: "This success could be placed at risk by the proposals to abolish Edinburgh Council."
Cllr Meagher criticised the Scottish Government for trying to conduct such far-reaching reorganisation with a three-month deadline on discussion was “irresponsible” and a distraction for officials dealing with the city’s many challenges.
But SNP group leader Lesley Macinnes accused the administration of taking an “essentially negative position” and said the government had acknowledged “we’re not going to get a finished product at the end of three months”.
Lib Dem group leader Ed Thornley said the government’s plans as they stood were “completely unacceptable and utterly impractical”. And he focused on the possibility of no council for the Capital. “My concern is that under a regional super-council covering the Lothians, Borders and Fife, it would destroy our ability to be the leading body of Scottish local government that we have been in the past few years - Scotland’s first Visitor Levy, Scotland’s first short-term let control zone.”
Ross McKenzie, on behalf of the Greens, said he agreed with the frequently quoted idea that existing councils were "too small to be strategic and too big to be local".
He said: "For example, here transport decisions have required regional considerations, and on the local side, when I look at an area like Sighthill, I think it has been really poorly served by local government in recent decades and would benefit from structures that bring people together on a locality basis."
Conservative councillor Neil Cuthbert said the European Charter of Local Self-Government, now part of Scots law, laid down that boundaries should not change without consultation of the communities concerned and pointed to a referendum as a way of doing that. The council accepted his proposal that the council leader write to the First Minister, asking that any major change to Edinburgh’s boundaries should go to the people in a local referendum.
Cllr Cuthbert said: “Edinburgh is the capital city, it is a cohesive place and people who live in Colinton or Queensferry or Leith have a right to be asked before fundamental change is made to city boundaries.”