Council Budget 2011/14

Seven meetings, 600 ideas, hundreds of suggestions and e-mails ... Edinburgh people have their say

Almost 1,000 ideas or suggestions have been received by the Council from members of staff and the public as part of the budget engagement programme 2011/12.

Results from six community meetings were published on the Neighbourhood Partnership websites after the events in late November (see links to their websites at the bottom of this page). There is also more information in the City Conference notes and Financial Context presentation.

A new method - called Collaborative Decision Making - was used this year and proved popular. People were asked to consider the question "Bearing in mind the financial situation, what actions can we take to maintain, develop and improve services in Edinburgh ?"

As one member of the North Voluntary Forum said: "The event I attended was excellent and allowed everyone to have their say."

Priorities emerged and these will be used going forward as the Council plans its future service provision and shapes its financial strategy.

The joint neighbourhood meetings produced almost 600 suggestions which have been captured under the themes:

• How can we do things better?
• How can we create and use partnerships better?
• How can we raise more money?
• Prevention is better than cure - how do we invest where it makes a difference?
• Asking people what they want or need - how do we do it more effectively?

These themes were discussed at the City Conference which produced some key issues:

• the need for continuous dialogue with citizens - get feedback as decisions are taken
• opportunities to build on community capacity - create empowered citizens and harness the energy of young people
• importance of the prevention agenda - deliver savings and make a difference to people's lives
• benefits of true partnership working - deliver real outcomes
• opportunities to generate income eg bed/hotel tax
• importance of investing in Edinburgh.

The Council will set its budget on 9 February next year. You can continue to make comments directly to the Council Leader on your priorities for the city to leader@edinburgh.gov.uk

You may find more information on the budget consultation events which tool place in your local community:

• Almond and Western Neighbourhood Partnership
• Craigentinny/Duddingston and Portbello/Craigmillar Neighbourhood Partnership
• Liberton/Gilmerton and South Central Neighbourhood Partnership
• City Centre and Leith NP
• Forth and Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership
• South West and Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership.