Leader Comment: What choice is there to stop these council cuts?

The full impact of the cost cutting being proposed by the city council is only now starting to become clear.
The City of Edinburgh Music School faces being broken up as part of council budget cuts. Pic: Ian GeorgesonThe City of Edinburgh Music School faces being broken up as part of council budget cuts. Pic: Ian Georgeson
The City of Edinburgh Music School faces being broken up as part of council budget cuts. Pic: Ian Georgeson

We don’t have the full picture yet but from what we know already it is not going to be pretty. Taking £3 million out of the health and social care budget at a time when the service is struggling so badly to deliver the care packages that thousands of older people need is going to be hard. What impact that will have on the services they provide we can only guess at this stage, but it is a major concern.

Sports centre users will fear the impact of a new levy on Edinburgh Leisure at a time when it faces the threat of a huge hike in business rates. There are concerns this could lead to closures. Then there is the plan to break up the acclaimed music centre of excellence at Broughton High School which is attracting more criticism with every passing day.

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After years of seeing its spending squeezed, it is becoming ever harder for city councillors to find savings without damaging valuable services.

What is not clear, but must become so, is what are the alternatives. Our story today about the city stalling on a multi-million property deal at India Quay seems to offer at least one answer.