A group of people who attend the Pilmeny Development Project (PDP) in Leith, along with Anne Munro the Manager of PDP, and other members of the management, handed in a petition to the Lord Provost on Tuesday afternoon.
The petition with 1,125 signatures calls for support against the “devastating loss of funding” which would mean closure of the services offered to socially isolated older people in Leith Walk, Leith Wards and the NE Edinburgh locality. The organisation has received a grant of £68,000 which is core funding, allowing it to apply for additional grants and monies to continue in existence.
The management committee at PDP demand that Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian continue to “fund our much needed work with local older folk”.
As PDP was presenting the petition the Corporate Policy and Sustainability Committee was meeting elsewhere in the building. The committee spent considerable time discussing how to spend the £3.5 million allocated to the third sector in the Council budget. This money was proposed as one way to alleviate the effect of the proposed cuts of £4.5 million threatened since last November by the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board.
The EIJB proposed cutting the £4.5 million from their £900 million budget affecting 60+ organisations in the city including PDP.
Anne Munro said: “We are delighted the Lord Provost and Cllr Pogson offered to meet with local older folk to receive the petition and to hear from them at firsthand the impact of the 100% ‘disinvestment’ by EIJB.
“PDP were fortunate to receive support from The OneCity Trust in 2022 towards our highly successful project ‘Coming out of Lockdown Re-Connecting Programme for Older People in Leith/NE Edinburgh and to receive a letter of congratulations as part of PDP’s 45th Anniversary year from the Lord Provost in November 2024. The continued support of our much needed services is very welcome.”
The Lord Provost welcomed everyone to the Lady Provost’s rooms and said that he used to run a voluntary organisation and knew well the pressures the organisation is under. He said: “Thank you for putting in the work and getting the petition together. You do a fantastic job – the opportunity for people to meet up can make such a difference.”
Cllr Tim Pogson said: “We are hopeful that the funding future will look more rosy. There are conversations in the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership as to ways we can work more closely with organisations such as yours to make sure that these vital services carry on. There has been a crisis over the last few weeks and months, and it has been really alarming for everybody affected. But hopefully we can get something quite positive out of it. We hope we get something quite positive out of it – a better new relationship on a more secure footing for all the organisations such as Pilmeny.”
A public meeting was held at the end of January attended by concerned local older people, carers and families who then started the petition to highlight the impact that proposed funding cuts to PDP would have on older peoples services in the area. Those at the meeting agreed how important it is not to lose the services enjoyed by many which helps to avoid social isolation.
The staff and clients of @PilmenyDevProj handed in a petition to the @LordProvostEdin today asking for their funding to continue in the wake of months of uncertainty and proposed cuts by the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board pic.twitter.com/bkBgnQBTGQ
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) March 11, 2025
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