Success for Council boss – Statutory notices – Don’t Miss Out on Previously! Scotland’s History Festival – Ice hockey live webcast tomorrow – Tonight at the Queen’s Hall
The Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council has won the Chief Executive of the Year award at the HR Network Awards held in Glasgow last night.
#hrna13 – The Chief Executive of the Year is City of Edinburgh Council CEO Sue Bruce – congratulations!
— Hr NETWORK (@HrNETWORKNews) November 14, 2013
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The full council meets next Thursday and when the papers are released later this morning they will include recommendations on the way that outstanding bills for statutory repairs are cleared up.
This administration began with a total of £30m of repairs not yet billed to the property owners involved, although the work had been completed. That total has now been reduced to £22m, and in accordance with advice from Deloittes, the firm employed by the council to investigate the matter, the council is now about to start the billing process for the remainder. The council leader is adamant however that this will be done in as sensitive a way as possible, and no bill.
They will start soon with a pilot which includes 17 statutory notices, ie 17 tenements of around 10 properties each, so around 170 property owners. These are thought to be the least contentious of the statutory notices.
These notices were issued before the old system was disbanded, and all of the property owners have previously been made aware of the sums involved so there should be no real surprise to owners. The bills in the pilot are probably much the same as the previous estimate, something which was not always the case, as some property owners were advised of massive increases in their bills in an abuse of the system.
The council says it will not adopt a heavy-handed approach and is only sending out information this side of Christmas, and the bills will follow in January. These are cases where the final total could be between £100 and £20,000 for each property owner and the property owners will be invoiced only for work covered by the initial statutory notice.
They are spread across more than one area of the city and all councillors involved have been briefed in case they are called upon by residents to assist.
The council’s statutory notice system, where the council could step in to ensure that common repairs required to make a building safe were actually carried out and all owners billed for the work, fell apart as a result of alleged fraud on the part of several council officials.
The unbilled work involves around 3,500 property owners and the council cannot estimate how long it will take to clear the backlog of bills up, but this pilot is seen as a positive step in that direction.
The council leader, Andrew Burns, said that he is very much in favour of having a statutory notice procedure, something which is unique in Scotland, but the new repairs system is not yet costed or agreed upon.
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With over 34 events, an all-day community history conference, a local art exhibition, family history surgeries, pop up café and bookshop we look forward to meeting you in our History Hub at Adam House, Chamber Street, Edinburgh from Monday 18th till Saturday 23rd November. All details online at www.historyfest.co.uk.
Adam House will be open on:
- Monday 18 at 5pm
- Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th at 12pm
- Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd at 11am
- Saturday 23 at 9am
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CAPITALS WEBCAST AGAINST BELFAST GIANTS THIS WEEKEND
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Tonight at The Queen’s Hall new music from a big name!
“Brooklyn originals They Might Be Giants come to Edinburgh with their new album Nanobots. Their boundless creativity and spontaneous performances, combined with their vast repertoire of memorable songs, has made their live shows the thing of legend. With the brand new album, DVD and iPhone app, there is much for They Might Be Giants’ fans to celebrate.”
Booking details here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
