​Council Hogmanay funding secret cut comes as no surprise - Steve Cardownie

​The story that broke in yesterday’s Evening News that “A removal of funding for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay was ‘kept secret’ by the council…..” could hardly have come as a surprise to most readers.

​After all this is not the first time that councillors have been denied accurate information in reports to committees.

The June 2022 Finance Committee was told that “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, will be funded from the council’s revenue budget and the maximum budget available per annum is £812,456.”

In fact, we are told that money had been removed from the budget by officials, reducing it to £656,000.

The cunning plan being that this money would be restored to the budget once the first £150,000 hit the council’s bank account from the income generated by the Christmas celebrations.

The only problem being that as the council made such a pig’s ear out of the tendering process for the event, they were getting “Brussel Sprout”- nowt!

The profit that the council was expecting to receive from Christmas/ Hogmanay 2022 was expected to be in the region of £3 million.

But in effect, due to the botched handling of the process by the council, that money was lost to the public purse.

It was money that was sorely needed elsewhere, and which could have been used to reverse some unwelcome budget cuts.

The council has denied the decision to not adjust the amount being offered to companies to run the city’s New Year’s Eve party to £656k in line with the revised budget was motivated by concerns about how it would be reported by the media, and said the primary reason was the “potential impact on the event”.

What are councillors doing about this sad state of affairs?

It would appear that they are waiting on a report of an inquiry into the debacle by an “outside” firm of solicitors.

Once that is concluded we will see whether or not any action will be taken. Will officials “carry the can?” Don’t bet on it!