Local campaigners from East Edinburgh and Leith will be holding a public meeting on Tuesday 13 December 2011 at Meadowbank Arts Complex at 7pm to discuss Council proposals to privatise certain public services. Councillors have been invited to attend, along with a speaker from Unison, the trade union which represents many of the Council’s staff. Everyone from across the city is welcome to attend and hear the latest developments.

On Thursday 24 November 2011, The City of Edinburgh Council made the welcome decision to keep their environmental services (waste and recycling, street cleansing and parks maintenance) in-house, rejecting a bid from the private contractor Enterprise Managed Services.

The meeting organisers said:-“We’re pleased that they chose not to privatise our services, but the campaign is far from over, as the Council will be deciding the fate of the Integrated Facilities Management and Corporate and Transactional Services workstreams on 19th January 2012. This means that from early next year, important public services such as building maintenance, cleaning, school meals, security services, housing benefit payments and council tax collection could be provided by for-profit companies instead of council staff.”

The meeting has been organised by Save Our Services East Edinburgh and Greater Leith Against the Cuts, two grassroots campaign groups which have been started up in response to the Council’s proposals to privatise vital services though the Alternative Business Models Programme. Both groups believe that it is not in the city’s interests to privatise services, and that the Council have not done enough to inform local residents about the plans, or undertaken a suitable consultation.

 

Meeting venue information: The Arts Complex is located on London Road  which can be reached by the 4, 5, 15, 26, 44 and 45 bus routes, and car parking is also available. The building is wheelchair accessible, although the only step-free entrance is located in the car park. The organisers say that they apologise for any inconvenience this causes; normally they would use Meadowbank Sports Centre which is more easily accessible, but it is not currently available due to a reorganisation of the building.

 

[googleMap name=” Meadowbank Arts Complex” width=”500″ height=”500″ directions_to=”false”]151 London Road Edinburgh [/googleMap]
+ posts