Chris Land is one of two Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party candidates standing in the newly named Morningside Ward, alongside Councillor Nick Cook.
Biography:
- Raised and lives in Morningside Ward. Educated locally, at South Morningside Primary and George Heriot’s School.
- Graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2009 with a degree in Oriental Studies. Speaks several languages, including Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
- Lived in Shanghai before working as a political risk consultant in London for four years, advising multi-national companies on investment in Asian emerging and frontier markets.
- Returned to Scotland in 2014 to campaign for No vote in the independence referendum. Now works as a political adviser to Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Liz Smith MSP in The Scottish Parliament.
- Interests include history, cinema, architecture and rugby. Plays for Heriot’s Rugby Club and The Scottish Parliament team.
Priorities for Morningside Ward:
Morningside is a great place to live and work and I want to keep it that way. However, I believe that there are still many improvements that can be made to it. I want to give the ward a strong local voice in the City Chambers and not only have its issues tackled but also be a key part of overall planning for a strong and successful Edinburgh. Specifically, I want to address the following issues:
- Make much needed improvements to Morningside’s roads and pavements. The Conservatives are pledging to do this by improving the technical specification of repairs and restructuring the tendering and delivery of repairs and maintenance so that people get the best value for money for their Council Tax.
- Improve the infrequent and patchy coverage of our bin collection and recycling services, making them more reliable and cost effective by tendering parts or all of the service and prioritising higher standards and lower costs.
- Ensure our local schools have sufficient capacity and see through the successful building of a new primary school for Morningside.
- Improve Morningside’s transport links with the rest of the city and elsewhere by lobbying for the re-opening of the South Suburban Railway and Morningside Station.
- Oppose destructive planning applications, such as those recently proposed for Craighouse, Midmar Paddock, Comiston Farmhouse and the Old Royal High School. We all understand the pressures that a growing Edinburgh will put on the city’s infrastructure, however I believe that this can be mitigated and balanced with preserving Edinburgh’s fantastic architectural heritage.
- Press the Council to provide funding for a gull de-nesting service to tackle the urban gull problem in our city’s tenement areas such as Bruntsfield and Marchmont.
For the information of Chris Land… the Craighouse development was voted for by all Conservative councillors on the committee! He can’t have it all ways.
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