Jeremy Balfour: Show some true grit and stop this cut

Budget cuts to the council are not just impractical, they're unsafe. A saving of £1.3 million each year in council spending has been imposed and our public services are being attacked. The gritters are the latest victim.
Jeremy Balfour is a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Lothian region. Picture: Ian GeorgesonJeremy Balfour is a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Lothian region. Picture: Ian Georgeson
Jeremy Balfour is a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Lothian region. Picture: Ian Georgeson

It is proposed that, in order to make a saving of £100,000, gritting the city’s pavements should take place from 8am instead of 5am. Indeed, it is also estimated that up to 80 jobs could disappear from roads and environment crews.

This is unacceptable. Not only are peoples’ livelihoods at stake, but potentially their lives. Gritting the pavements from 8am means that commuters across the city will be heading out on ungritted icy or snowy pavements, significantly increasing their likelihood of slipping and causing injury.

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Further, the elderly are most at risk. Pushing back gritting until much later in the day will have consequences for this section of the community.

A fall is a serious incident for an elderly person and causes significant harm to their health, both physical and emotional. Many older people don’t feel able to leave the house, sometimes for days at a time, for fear of falling.

Knowing that council cuts are targeting gritting services will only encourage this. This will also have a knock-on effect on those already feeling isolated and lonely during the dark winter months.

Slips and falls put pressure on hospital and ambulance services, who see a huge spike in fall-related injuries during the winter months. During last December alone, there were 500 falls. The after effect of slips and falls also puts pressure on the stretched social care system with the increase of those left injured and unable to fully care for themselves. Therefore, in reality, the effects of pavements which are neglected by gritting services is a false economy. The savings made would be superficial, pushing costs up elsewhere in the health and social care sector, putting a further strain on staff.

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As you can see the cost is both human and economic. Through ensuring full and thorough gritting services we can mitigate against these problems.

The question that must be asked is what are we actually getting for our council tax? Given that there has been a rise in council tax, surely that should secure further protection for our vital services. Instead we have witnessed our roads deteriorate, a fiasco over bin collection and now the consideration of a potentially dangerous policy. What’s next?

My concerns are shared by many. I ask that the council reconsider the implementation of reduced gritting services and reflect on the effects that funding cuts have on people’s lives.

Jeremy Balfour is a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Lothian region.