4
Council agrees budget
and freezes council tax
Could tourist tax
create new Ross
Bandstand?
By PHYLLIS STEPHENIT IS A CONSTANT REFRAIN that there
is not enough money for government at
any level. But there are other potential
streams of council income such as the
tourist tax which the council estimates
could raise around £25 million.
The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the
legislation under which hotels and other
accommodation providers in the city will
charge either a flat fee per night or a
percentage of the cost of a room
(probably with a seven day cap) is
currently making its way through The
Scottish Parliament. What the funds can
be spent on has not yet been defined but
85% responded positively to a council
survey in 2019 expressing strong support
for the move.
Council Leader, Cllr Cammy Day, hopes
it could be used to refurbish public assets
used by tourists and the public alike such
as Pilrig Park and The Ross Bandstand in
Princes Street Gardens. The £25 million
Ross Pavilion was the subject of a design
competition begun in 2016 with £
million of seed funding from
businessman Norman Springford, OBE,
former chair of Apex Hotels.
Around £2 million of this was spent on
restoring the Ross Fountain for the city,
but proposals to create “a unique
internationally recognisable venue for all
to enjoy” faltered over ownership and
control of the gardens.
Cllr Day said: “There have been
discussions with some council officers
and I’ve met some people who think
there’s a potential to refurbish the Ross
Bandstand rather than rebuild a new one
that will give it another 50 years. I know
that we’re having discussions about
bringing back for example, pipe band
competitions and country dancing -
things that happened years ago that will
be free and accessible to anybody who’s
around in the city, and we will use the
Ross Bandstand for that. One of the
festivals is keen to get some temporary
structures in there that will allow it to be
used a lot more of the year completely
under cover. For me, there’s nothing that
we would say we’re not going to fund
from the transient visitor levy but the
government will potentially limit what
we can do. Our position on that is that it
should be for the council to decide.”Administration’s proposals passed with LibDem and Tory support
By PHYLLIS STEPHEN
EDINBURGH COUNCIL has set its 2024/
council tax, freezing the charge in response to
demands made by The Scottish Government.
Council leader, Cllr Cammy Day, said he did so
reluctantly and that even with eleventh hour
additional monies from The Scottish
Government the measure was not fully funded.
Cllr Day said: “This is a budget aimed at
protecting vital frontline services on which our
communities and residents rightly depend. It
will help us to keep on getting the basics right
by improving our roads and parks and green
spaces, supporting our schools, tackling poverty,
and working towards our ambitious net zero
targets.
“We’re also putting additional funding
towards Edinburgh Leisure, the creation of new
public toilets and continuing our work with
partners to reduce the harmful effects of
poverty. This will include supporting the Big
Hoose Project and lifting households out of
homelessness.”
OPPOSITION GROUPS
The SNP group in their draft plans had
allocated £5 million for free after school care
on Fridays, extending the school day to help
working families. This is not part of the
framework eventually passed by 34 votes, but
Finance Convener Cllr Mandy Watt said the
door is always open for ideas from other
political groups.
She said: “If the SNP are still keen to do that
they can ask for a report be brought to
Education Committee and have some proper
detail put in place around that proposal, and let
people say what they think. We’ve had
deputations from schools, and one of the
primary schools in a written deputation said
basically, yes, that would be lovely if we were
awash with money, but they don’t see it as a
priority.”
The SNP, who were previously in coalition
with the Labour Group, see themselves as
outsiders in this administration, and repeatedly
call the Labour minority administration a
coalition of three parties - Labour, LibDems
and Conservatives - something the Labour
group and Council Leader vehemently deny.
SNP finance spokesperson Cllr Lesley
Macinnes said that the city had lost out in the
budget, and that while the SNP group had all
sorts of good ideas in their proposals, these
were “dismissed out of hand”. She gave the
example of a proposal to spend £3.5 million to
get empty council houses back into circulation
but which was not incorporated in the council’s
financial plans.
The Conservative Group’s suggestion of a
“deep review” of the homelessness service will
however proceed. Conservative finance
spokesperson Phil Doggart said there will be
significant financial gains. He said: “This will
mean getting more people into the right type of
accommodation rather than having to rely on
temporary unsuitable short term solutions.”
Asked about the rising cost of the
homelessness service (which increased to £64.
million in the last year) Cllr Doggart said:
“We’ve had an increase in the number of people
requiring assistance. We now have a statutory
requirement to find a solution for them
because of national policy. But we just can’t
keep spending money on unsuitable and
expensive solutions.”
A Conservative suggestion of spending
£892,000 on a project to “Scrub our Streets”,
which will respond to speciifc requests from
the public, will also be funded.
All parties including the Liberal Democratsbacked finding money for supported bus
services and the number 69 and 20 bus services
will be reinstated - probably quite soon
depending on council time - for people living
in Dumbiedykes and Lady Nairne.
The Green Group did not back the council
tax freeze but were pleased that their
suggestions such as £2.5 million to be invested
in climate, nature and jobs as well as a night
time coordinator to be appointed in the city
will be funded.
The budget includes £500,000 to celebrate
Edinburgh 900 - celebrating 900 years since
Edinburgh became the first royal burgh - to the
disgust of SNP group leader Adam Nois-McVey
who criticised the “bunting budget” as
“wrongheaded” saying money was needed for
“frontline youth work”.POLITICS
A full council
meeting was held to
agree the budgetHEADLINES INCLUDE:
- Band D council tax will be £1447.
- £27 million set aside for schools with an extra £2 million proposed by the Liberal
Democrat group in the Devolved Management Budget - that part of school spending
controlled by head teachers - Parking charges in Edinburgh city centre will rise by 22%.
- £12.5 million will be spent on roads and pavements.
- £3.5 million will be allocated to Edinburgh Leisure to allow them to pay the Real Living
Wage and no leisure venues will close. This is tied to a condition to investigate ways of
the charity becoming more sustainable in the future. - Council rents will rise by 7% raising £2 billion over the next ten years. Approval to buy
118 homes at Western Harbour to rent out (subject to due diligence) was also granted.
Ross
Bandstand