After starting a petition to stop the possible closure of Leith Registrars Office on Wednesday, Edinburgh North and Leith MP Deidre Brock announced good news earlier today as The City of Edinburgh Council said they have put a stay on their plans.
In only two days the petition gathered 4,000 signatures showing the extent of local support.
Ms Brock hailed this as a victory for the Leithers as the council announced it would hold a public consultation over the possible closure.
Deidre said : “Well done the Leithers – people power wins the day! It’s fantastic to hear that the council has been forced to think again about the wrong-headed plans to close Leith Registrars Office. This is a brilliant example of local democracy in action. It’s also great teamwork from the people of Leith who spread the word and added their voices to the petition in their droves. This should never have been happening without public consultation and without even the councillors being told but credit to the council for eventually listening to the community and turning round.
“We’ve won this battle but the threat of closure hasn’t gone away and I’ll be watching developments closely. When the consultation comes out I’ll make sure that as many Leithers as possible have their say. We won’t stop until any idea of closing Leith Registrar is abandoned for good. The 1920 settlement that Leith got from Edinburgh has to be respected and we will keep reminding council officials of that.
“There’s an important principle here which is that services should be delivered where people need them. The council policy is to decentralise service provision so this closure proposal was out of kilter and I’m delighted that sense prevailed.”
In 2014 we met two couples at Leith Registrars who were using the newly introduced legislation to get married there. Read more here.
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