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Council leader Jenny Dawe wants to hear your views

Help identify priorities and tell us your concerns

Thanks to all the Outlook readers who took part in our telephone and e-mail survey in October.

With tough budget decisions around the corner, I’m anxious to find out what you think and what your prioities and concerns are.

We had a fantastic response to the survey with more than half of our reader database taking time out to answer our questions.

Now all readers can contact me direct by e-mail or freepost to the addresses below about:

your priorities for the city
which services you value most
your concerns for the future.

Below are the top ten responses to each of these questions.

What is coming over loud and clear is that you are worried about any cut in services. Indeed, you expect all services to improve. We’re trying our best to do just that, but the tough decisions we have to make mean we have to prioritise. Your feedback will help us do just that.

There were many useful comments made, so I’ve picked four of the most common ones to answer.

I have little faith that any of my comments will have any effect on the budgeting process – it is hard to stop a juggernaut which has no brakes!

Mr O, EH4

Money will be very tight for several years and it’s never been more important that we take account of your views. The decisions we face are so difficult that there will always be people who think we’ve made the wrong choices. But you will see residents’ opinions reflected in where we make savings and where we continue to provide funding.

I blamed the administration for the budget mess and lack of organisation, but now I don’t think that’s true.

Mrs G, EH15

As we’ve set out on the opposite page, the Council has made record savings while improving services. We’ve done this by cutting out wasteful activity and doing things differently. Council staff at all levels are helping us with that process. We’ve also put money aside for certain costs we know we’ll face in coming years. The main problem now is that the recession means there’s less money coming in – from Government and elsewhere – and we’ve got more demand for services.

People want to improve all services, not just major priorities.

Martin Scully, Silverknowes

First of all, we can improve services by doing things differently. In fact, we can sometimes improve services and save money at the same time. But I also have to stress that the financial situation for the whole public sector means there simply isn’t the funding to treat everything as a priority. We have to make choices about what the Council does.

The trams will cost the city dear and were not required as we had an excellent bus service.

John Gray, Durham Avenue

Even if cancelling the trams was an option, it’s not a solution. The Council’s investment in the trams is much less than the savings we’ll have to make. In any case, the funding comes mostly from the Scottish Government. If the trams did not go ahead, the money would be lost to Edinburgh.