Labour Council Election Manifesto
• Start talks with the Scottish Parliament to allow Edinburgh to raise funds to support heritage and festivals through a tourist tax.
• Press for business rates to come back to the council.
• Support charities and communities by transferring council assets into their ownership or management and agreeing five-year funding packages.
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Hide Ad• Introduce a living wage for council staff of £7.20 an hour – and encourage firms which do business with the council to do the same.
• Work towards greater equality in council salaries, a ratio of 1:12 between lowest and highest paid.
• Set up a budget committee open to representations from the public.
ECONOMY
• Work with local firms to encourage them to offer real apprenticeships to young people and in return seek to reduce their business rates.
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Hide Ad• Strive to support local businesses by tipping the balance against unfair competition from big outsiders.
• Put more money into the council’s Edinburgh Guarantee apprenticeship system.
• Help people find premises for business through unused council premises as short low-cost lets.
• Where legal make sure council buys from local suppliers.
Transport
• Set up a Transport Forum of experts and citizens to think through transport needs.
• Have a two-year hiatus on any major transport projects.
• Bring roads and pavements up to a good standard.
• Control the work standards of utilities companies.
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Hide Ad• Try to get the tram back on track and support a public inquiry into the problems.
• Extend 20mph routes.
• Spend a minimum of five per cent of transport budget on cycling and walking.
• Pledge never to sell off Lothian Buses.
Culture/Leisure/Sport
• Transfer decisions about local pitches and pavilions to co-operative groups of the clubs which use them.
• Back the reintroduction of community newspapers to strengthen community voices.
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Hide Adn End a tick-box target culture within the council to focus on what Edinburgh needs.
Education/Children
• Set up a city-wide “childcare co-op” to provide affordable childcare for working parents.
• Give parent councils the right to share in decision- making on schools by nominating a member of the council’s education committee.
• Ensure teachers are given as much training and support as required to introduce Curriculum for Excellence.
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Hide Ad• Widen access and minimise charges for the use of schools by the community.
• Draw up a long-term plan to tackle overcrowding and underuse in schools.
Environment
• Protect green spaces from development and place decisions about their care into hands of local people.
• Consult tenants about bulk buying gas and electricity for their homes through an energy co-op to save them money.
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Hide Ad• Confront all that’s tacky in the city centre from pavements to shops.
• Use council property to generate green electricity and encourage the development organisations like the Edinburgh Community Energy Co-operative.
Health
• Bring council, care staff and users together in a co-operative to decide on and provide the means to make life better for users of social care.
• Never seek to privatise or sell these services to the lowest bidder.
Housing
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Hide Ad• Set up a task force to find fair ways to bring empty homes into use and build useful developments on derelict land.
• Press the Scottish Government to release money for Edinburgh to build new high-quality affordable homes for rent.
• Work with landowners to free up urgently needed land.
Planning
• Seek to revoke planning permissions where builders are hoarding land and not developing it.
• Ensure new builds comply with top design and green standards.
Crime
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Hide Ad• Working with the police, we will set up a special antisocial behaviour unit to target persistent offenders.
• Expand drug and alcohol control programmes and support voluntary groups who offer safety to vulnerable people at risk.
• Faster enforcement of council tenancy agreements over disruptive neighbours.
• Where the law allows, place restrictions on party flats.
• Ensure links to local police and fire services are not lost by the move to single Scottish forces.