Edinburgh Council is working hard to save the Filmhouse and Film Festival, and to make life better for people in Capital – Cammy Day

The last few weeks have been both incredibly challenging and hugely rewarding for Edinburgh, showing our city at its magnificent best as we marked the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, and underlining just how much we can achieve when we work together.

The Centre for the Moving Image, which has gone into administration, ran both the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Filmhouse cinema (Picture: Aleksandra Janiak)

The same is, of course, true of our city’s response to the global pandemic since it began two-and-a-half years ago and, more recently, to the horrific events in Ukraine. The welcome and support we have given, and continue to give, to people in such desperate need, has been truly immense. It’s now six months since we opened our Welcome Hub at Gogarburn, and we’ve already brought close to 10,000 Ukrainian refugees safely through its doors.

As winter nears, however, we must stay focused on the wider priorities for our city and residents. The true scale and difficulty of the cost-of-living crisis is becoming ever clearer, made all the worse by the complete and utter breakdown of the Tory government in Westminster. We, and our partners, are working extremely hard to lessen the impact of the crisis and make a real difference.

Of course, a year on from COP26 in Glasgow, we mustn’t forget the escalating climate emergency either. I took the opportunity during Climate Week 2022 to restate the council’s, and the city’s, commitment to the fight against climate change and our target of being net zero by 2030.

This is all incredibly important but, alongside these ambitious commitments, we have to demonstrate how we can improve core day-to-day services and deliver for the people of Edinburgh by prioritising where there is the most need and where we can make the biggest impact.

That means making Edinburgh a cleaner, better maintained city that we can all be proud of. It also means allowing all of our residents to access fair work, support and public services in ways that meet their needs and expectations.

We’re working hard to ensure the council’s business plan – a draft of which will be published shortly – reflects these ambitions while dealing with ever-tighter financial settlements from the Scottish Government. My drive to address the issues that matter the most to the people of Edinburgh is every bit as strong as when I took office in May and I will never tire of making the case for the funding we deserve as a Capital city.

Working together to preserve our cultural heritage

It was with great sadness that we learnt the Centre for the Moving Image, parent charity of the Edinburgh Filmhouse and Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), was to enter administration earlier this month.

A much-loved cinema in the city since the 1970s, the Filmhouse was also the spiritual home of the EIFF, which this year celebrated 75 years. As the world’s oldest continually running film festival, we’re determined to see it return next year and, on hearing the news, I immediately wrote to Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government asking them to reserve any remaining funding.

Together with officers, the culture convener and myself are holding weekly meetings with the government, Creative Scotland and the administrators to explore all avenues available to us to support the future of the CMI and do everything we possibly can to preserve these valuable cultural assets for our Capital city.

Cammy Day is Edinburgh Council leader and Labour councillor for Forth