CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Public consultation meetings at last

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  1. Kirst
    Member

    If you've been following the local news you'll know that the council has plans to privatise large chunks of council services through a scheme they're calling Alternative Business Models. They've taken pelters from the trade unions and Audit Scotland relating to their lack of public consultation on the plans. UNISON organised a public debate last week which the administration had agreed to attend, but then they pulled out a few hours before and didn't send a substitute. The meeting went ahead anyway and it was revealed that the council's only public consultation on the matter was a MORI poll of a few focus groups, and then they refused to release the results because apparently we're not allowed to know what we think. Anyway, turns out that the majority of those polled are against the plans - which led to the administration dismissing the public's views as out of touch.

    After a lot of pressure they've finally agreed to hold some public consultation meetings via the neighbourhood partnerships

    http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/news/2011/2011/10/outcome-consultation-meetings/

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. Dave
    Member

    Privatisation means doing the same thing but paying for a series of subcontractors' profit margins on top.

    British Rail (and a long list of others) have been so "successful" post-privatisation that I treat such plans with extreme scepticism. I'd rather have a slightly less efficient public service, personally.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. 14Westfield
    Member

    Privatisation means that when the bin men decide they'd rather not collect the city's bins for weeks on end no one gets paid and they all get sacked.
    Excellent.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. SRD
    Moderator

    I agree with Dave (there's a first time for everything :)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Kirst
    Member

    14Westfield, it seems to be a myth that the bin men have been on strike. They've been working to rule - doing exactly what they're supposed to do and no more. If your bins haven't been collected, it's management's fault.

    And this is about so much more than the bins.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. Dave
    Member

    Of course, I guess one advantage of bringing in a private company is that they are unlikely to do anything for free, so either the charge will be higher or they will seem like they are on strike, and the council will need to spin it a little better than they do currently.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. crowriver
    Member

    Off topic slightly, but you might be interested to know that much of the university sector is currently working to rule (working to contract, to be precise). That dispute is about changes to pensions rather than privatisation.

    Not sure what the school teachers have planned but I have a feeling industrial action might be on the cards there too.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. steveo
    Member

    The question I have to ask with these things, is that since the council want to go down the road of sub contracting why exactly do we need an elected council?

    People could arrange with a private firm to collect their rubbish with tiered system depending on how much waste you produce and level of recycling you do. One could pay Scottish water direct. Up keep of the parks and roads could be managed by the civil service (they do it any way). The costs for which could still be collected by a city tax of some description.

    I'm not really sure what ECC do? If everything is farmed out then surely they'll be even more redundant?

    Posted 12 years ago #

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