Edinburgh is making good progress but whether that continues is in your hands – Adam McVey

There are just a few months until the council elections. Like everyone, we have found the challenge of Covid to be enormous.

Councillor Donald Wilson and Lord Provost Frank Ross plant a tree to help the Capital become a 'million tree city'

It’s taken a lot of dedication, innovative thinking and strong leadership to deal with these circumstances. While of course there are areas we would have liked to have seen more progress in, with work being interrupted by the pandemic, it’s remarkable how much has been done in these five years.

We’ve delivered for our young people, building eight new schools, increasing the number of teachers and classroom assistants by 400, rolling out 40,000 new iPads for every high school pupil and all p6’s and p7’s. We know how important early years development is and have doubled free nursery hours to 1,140 hours, giving all our children the best possible start in life.

We’re tackling climate change, and have set a strategy to become a million tree city, increasing trees by 50,000 during this term. The work to become net-zero by 2030 is vast, but Edinburgh hit the last target and reduced carbon dioxide by 42 per cent by 2020 with action to switch to greener vehicles and get more of us on public transport, walking and cycling on the journey to net-zero.

We’re making the economy stronger and fairer, with a £1.3bn City Deal delivering more than 21,000 jobs in sectors like science and technology and arming residents with the skills to take advantage of opportunities in these growth industries.

Edinburgh is also now an accredited living-wage city and, as well as doubling the number of accredited companies, the council has used its own contracts to oblige council contractors to become living-wage employers.

We know from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission how the lack of affordable homes is impacting residents. The council has doubled council house building this term and 5,500 more affordable homes have been built to increase supply and tackle rising rents. It’s not just the building of homes but the controls over short-term lets that is essential and, thanks to our work, we now have the regulations needed to tackle this issue properly.

We’re also investing in your well-being, delivering outstanding new sports facilities at Meadowbank, including a new home for Edinburgh City FC, and key additions like the Hunter’s Hall bike and skate park. This is on top of major refurbishments of playparks and a major £4m investment in our parks this year alone. It’s brilliant to see Leith Theatre back as a venue thanks to council investment and, with council investment also for the King’s refurbishment and the new Dunard concert hall, the future of culture in the city really will continue to include something for everyone.

I look forward to speaking more about our record and plans for the next five years in the upcoming campaign. But it’s not just the SNP’s record that you need to judge.

All parties face public scrutiny over their decisions. The Tories, in particular, have much to answer for. Such as, why did they try to block council support which helped thousands of EU national residents in Edinburgh obtain settled status?

And how can they justify keeping a Prime Minister in office who partied through lockdown, while our residents obeyed the rules, often in tragic circumstances?

Adam McVey is leader of Edinburgh Council and its SNP group

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