Budget update

Edinburgh's budget for 2012/13 was finally set yesterday, in a meeting with more than a whiff of farce about it. As predicted, the SNP/Lib Dem budget proposal was not published until after the meeting started, hugely restricting the opportunity for meaningful debate. But the final page of the motion wasn't distributed until 1pm - just 50 minutes before the debate concluded and the vote was taken. In the end no amendments were passed and the SNP and Lib Dem members combined to vote through their just-published plans.

The result is that the City of Edinburgh Council now carries over £1.5billion of debt, an amount that has risen by a staggering 66% over the last 5-years, and means that more than 10p in every £1 of Edinburgh taxpayers' money is now spent on servicing debt.

On top of this, the raid on reserves which has funded the pre-election largesse, which somehow leaked to the Evening News earlier in the week despite the budget proposals not being published, is the largest ever pre-election reserve spend in the history of the council at nearly £6 million.

Already our plans for a co-operative council with a consultative budget-setting approach is finding a lot of support on the doorsteps around the city. We have 83 days left to win that argument with enough people to allow us to put it into action!