The budget for Edinburgh is set by an opposition group
In a shock move it was the Liberal Democrat budget which was approved at the City Chambers on Thursday afternoon.
Following a complicated sequence of voting whereby three elected members from the Greens voted to ensure that the Labour administration motion fell at the first round of voting, it was the Liberal Democrat budget which was eventually supported by 32 votes to 29.
The Green group said they had voted in this manner to save the “Climate Team” which was not included in the administration’s draft budget, but which was included in the Liberal Democrat proposals.
What does this mean? There is a by-election in Corstorphine/Murrayfield where the Liberal Democrat leader has already told The Edinburgh Reporter they are sure to win, and with the resignation of Ross Mackenzie this afternoon from the Labour Group the administration has a slim one councillor majority.
Cllr Alys Mumford, Edinburgh Greens Co-Convenor and Finance spokesperson said: “Our priority throughout this process has been to secure the funding needed to tackle the climate and nature emergency. Our method for this was to engage, openly and honestly, with colleagues across the chamber, and to join with the SNP to present an ambitious, progressive budget.
Last night it became apparent that Labour’s administration had done another dirty deal with their coalition partners in the tories and lib dems – creating a slush fund and allowing them to carve it up between them.
Therefore we took the route available to us, and voted in the way which would ensure that there was a budget left on the table which contained vital climate spending.
We’re grateful to our colleagues who held their noses and voted to the tories and the lib dems – at great personal cost – for the sake of meeting our climate commitments.”
The Liberal Democrat budget is set out below and will be the governing financial environment which will prevail for the next year.
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