Elaine Miller has been a resident in the ward for the last 20 years. She said: “I am a but frustrated that local voices don’t seem to be represented in the council.”
She said she is most concerned that the area could end up with representation only from one party – the Liberal Democrats – saying that she does not think it would be good for democracy. She continued: “The LibDem position on the needs of women and girls does not meet meet what I think women and girls should be provided with.”
She continued: “I have worked in women’s health for a long time.”
She admitted that she was “cross having watched the debate on the GRRB for about five years or so” and said: “I went and watched the actual debate and the committee hearings and my impression is that the MSPs were not listening. And they weren’t listening to the evidence that I had submitted to the democratic process.”
When we countered that it was an overwhelming vote in favour of the GRRB she said: “Yes it was but my overwhelming belief is that they were voting for the party line rather than the expert evidence. I don’t consider the people that they took advice from as experts. I am. I know about pelvic health and they wouldn’t listen to me. So I thought if you won’t listen to women and girls I will make you.
“I am a physiotherapist and I work in women’s health which is anything to do with pelvises – that is my field. That would include services for people who have a gender difference.”
Miller “flashed” the chamber at Holyrood and was ejected from The Scottish Parliament by security.
We asked what she would have done about an issue closer to home – on the matter of compensation for the traders in Roseburn who claimed loss of business due to the roadworks to create the City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL). She said: “I think it is shocking that they didn’t get compensation. I think it is reasonable that if traders have lost a significant percentage of their business because of decisions made by councillors that they should be compensated. That project has been delayed and delayed. I don’t think it is reasonable that they will potentially have their businesses ruined.”
If she or any of the other independent candidates are elected at this by election it would be a first in Edinburgh. So asked why people should vote for her, Miller replied: “I am not tied to a party manifesto, so I can listen to people and hear what they want. My grandfather was an independent councillor a long time ago. If people’s voices are not being heard by their elected representatives because what the people want and need isn’t fitting in with that party’s political position then somebody who is not cow-towed would be a good thing.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
