Wednesday 3 November 2010

November arrives ....

Surgeries were quiet on Monday. No great surprise, it was a shocking night, wet and windy. Managed to get to Deanpark Primary School Parent Council meeting where, in common with every other school in the city, they are trying to plan for expected budget cuts and understand what impact this might have.

Yesterday afternoon I attended a briefing hosted by the Council Solicitor about Regulatory functions but appeared to be primarily aimed at advising councillors about conflicts of interest in connection with Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) including the advice that, due to consultation being an integral part of the TRO process, that deputations (from community groups or businesses etc) could no longer be heard at Committee as this could be viewed as a "hearing" and that should only be held by a Scottish Government appointed Reporter. Lawyers, eh ? What would we do without them ?

Last night I accepted an invite from Murray Estates to view a presentation about their proposals for a substantial development on the west of the city, effectively between the bypass, RBS HQ and Heriot Watt Uni. Its attracted a fair bit of media attention, partly due to the possible inclusion of a 25,000 stadium that could be shared by Hearts and Edinburgh Rugby. It was a very interesting session and I listened politely and asked a few questions. I await further developments with interest and expect there to be a great deal of debate within the Pentland Hills ward and beyond.

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