City Council

The scorched site of former Hunter’s Tryst Primary could finally be turned into housing as plans for 85 new affordable homes are recommended for approval.

In July last year, I wrote the first of these columns wondering what the summer influx of tourists would think of our city. I highlighted the failures of the council to deliver high-quality, basic services and how at least some of that would be visible to those tourists.

Much store has been placed by the SNP-Labour administration on its laudably ambitious plan to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes in the next ten years, but the question is not whether it is deliverable, but if it is ambitious enough.

The goings-on at the City Chambers remind me of the children’s song “Ten Green Bottles”, but in this case it is no accident that four councillors have ‘fallen’ by choosing to leave their respective party groups and continue to serve as independents.

As the Jazz and Blues Festival paraded on Sunday, the city’s festivals season truly began. It’s that time of year when we can marvel in the beauty of our city and ask whether there is a better place in the world to live and work.

I have sympathy for Timberbush Tours who are complaining that Lothian Buses’ new Lothian Motorcoaches tour business is a public sector operator using its muscle to distort a commercial market.

A DODGY businessman who helped orchestrate a massive work-for-bungs scam that rocked the Capital has been ordered to hand over an extra £20,000 in ill-gotten gains.

First of all, let me say that I do not support the Scottish Government’s position on the tourist tax, as I fully support its implementation in the city of Edinburgh. And, as the former Festivals and Events Champion for nigh on 20 years, I have consistently expressed this view both privately and publicly.

It’s fair to say that SNP politicians never have been and never will be fans of Tony Blair.

Garden tax could be the first of many top-up charges, warns Lib Dem group leader Robert Aldridge.

ANOTHER “hooray” is for the Edinburgh city council leader, Adam McVey SNP, who is continuing to push for a tourism tax in the city.

Talk about being put in your place. This week council leader Adam McVey trumpeted his plans to unveil a tourist tax scheme for Edinburgh next year, suggesting that objections from the Scottish Government were being tackled.

In my column last week, I wrote about ex-councillor Mike Bridgman’s new employment as a bus driver (and that his wife Claire was elected to serve the Almond Ward when it should have read the Drumbrae/Gyle ward) and I’ve since happened across another ex-councillor in the shape of Dom Heslop.

I back fellow columnist John McLellan’s opposition to the garden waste levy that Edinburgh folk are being asked to pay to maintain brown bin collection.

Despite lack of Tory support, Edinburgh Poverty Commission could transform city, writes Cammy Day.

When is a charge not a charge? Well, when it’s a saving of course. That is the logic of the latest pronouncement on this week’s belated launch of Edinburgh’s £25 garden waste levy from council leader Adam McVey.

The internal circulation of a “frequently asked questions” sheet by Cllr Lesley Macinnes this week indicates the level of problems created by the arrival of the garden bin information letters this week.

One of the pitfalls that beset many politicians seeking re-election to office is that if unsuccessful in their bid they are effectively out of work once the results are announced.

LAST week I met Jen Hardy, a mother from Edinburgh, above. She has incurable secondary breast cancer.