Tory Council Election Manifesto
• Deliver a zero-based budget for 2013-14, forcing each council department to justify what it does to ensure value for money from all services.
• Review what the council is obliged to do by statute and assess whether services can be delivered better by, or with, someone else.
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Hide Ad• Revisit the alternative business models programme to examine the potential of all sectors to deliver better and
more effective services.
• Seek to reduce council tax if possible.
• Give a commitment to a three-year funding package from the 2013 budget onward to give the Third Sector certainty for its budgets and establish a high-profile role for a councillor to advocate on behalf of this sector.
ECONOMY
• Deliver a larger return of business rate receipts from central government.
• Support all our town centres, not simply the nine presently designated.
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Hide Ad• Reduce unemployment, with a particular focus on youth employment.
• Continue support for the Edinburgh to Glasgow rail improvement programme.
• Say no to a tourist tax.
TRANSPORT
• Deliver the renewal and maintenance of roads and pavement infrastructure.
• Make pavements safe to walk on and ensure potholes are fixed quickly and done correctly first time.
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Hide Ad• Review parking charges to ensure that parking provision meets the need of local residents and local businesses.
• Find a more efficient use of existing road space through a re-examination of traffic flows.
• Encourage more cycling in the city both for getting to work and for leisure and improve cross-city routes.
• Deliver a tram, within the current contract, on time and at the best possible price.
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Hide Ad• Enable an expansion to car clubs in suitable parts of the city.
CULTURE/LEISURE/SPORT
• Establish a new cultural body, similar to Edinburgh Leisure, to run and maintain the King’s Theatre, the Festival Theatre and the Usher Hall. We would encourage this body to use outside experience.
• Increase investment in parks and libraries.
• Pilot a trust management approach for some community centres.
• Continue support of and invest in Edinburgh Leisure.
• Help the festivals grow and be more commercially successful.
• More private sponsorship to run our festivals.
EDUCATION/CHILDREN
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Hide Ad• A more devolved system to give headteachers and school staff more freedom.
• Parental choice at the centre of decision-making.
• Pursue choice, diversity and efficiency, allowing schools to develop vocational and subject specialisms.
• Extend the use of underused school buildings.
• Pursue partnerships with new providers: business, philanthropists and experts to work together to deliver better education.
ENVIRONMENT
• Continue to increase recycling levels across the city.
• Increase the number of dog waste bins and bags available especially around our parks and green spaces.
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Hide Ad• Manage and maintain the trees in our city and make sure it is done in a more efficient way.
HEALTH
• Expand older people’s services across the city to help people live longer lives in their own homes.
• Invest more resources in home services, making sure each person gets what they need as well as providing better community services to allow individuals to socialise and stop isolation.
• Promote the use of direct payments.
• Work with the Third Sector to facilitate the appropriate services.
HOUSING
• Prioritise housing development on brownfield sites.
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Hide Ad• Pilot a self-build project on an area of land where the council will put in some infrastructure and individuals can build their own homes.
PLANNING
• Planning guidance to be reduced and clarified.
• Promote the World Heritage Site status including the designation of a buffer around the site where it is not already abutted by a conservation zone.
• Reintroduce a self-financing Edinburgh stair partnership, seeking sponsorship from the private sector.
CRIME
• Work with business and the Third Sector to make sure that our streets are safe.