Right-First-Time
Many congratulations to the Edinburgh South West neighbourhood 'Right-First-Time' team, who won a Guardian Public Services Award this week ...... I find myself in the awkward position of agreeing with every word of Councillor Aldridge ;-)

Anyone for TIF?
I sense some more robust questioning next Tuesday ... have a read at this report for next week's Policy and Strategy Committee meeting.Tax Increment Financing (TIF) suddenly appears to be the potential saviour of all-things 'Leith/Waterfront'?Indeed, the report boldly states (bottom of paragraph 3.2) that: "The concept ... is to create a real sense of place which will encourage early construction of both commercial and residential development."Funny tha

Local Government finance ...
Well, well, well - finance settlement for Councils out this afternoon ...... and Local Government revenue funding for the City of Edinburgh Council, for the year 2010/11, is up.Yes - UP.Who would have predicted that ;-)...

Policy and Strategy papers ...
Policy and Strategy Committee Meeting next Tuesday (1st December - main agenda here) and the papers are out this morning ... and for once, there are quite a few interesting reports!One that jumps out at me straight away is the paper on the Composition of the Board of Transport Edinburgh Limited (TEL) - you can find it here. Not so much for what it says, but for what it doesn't ...... if my memory serves me correctly, this was the deadline for the report on the potential combining of 'bus and tram' operations under one Board str

In place of cuts?
Not sure I agree with 'every' one of the 9 key measures in the Executive Summary (see page 5) of this report just released by compass ...... but it certainly marks out a stark contrast to the 'no option but to cut back services' rhetoric that seems to be pervading (at least) Scottish Local Government at the moment.Thinking about the chances of at least some of these measures