It is very unlikely now that the tram will come down Leith Walk. This is a shame because the air quality is just not good enough especially for the children who live and go to school and nursery in the area. Leith Walk could have become a continental boulevard with hotels, shops, restaurants and bars open in the evenings.

If the decision is made not to have a tram going down Leith Walk in the foreseeable future, the trees which were taken away to make way for the trams must go back. We also need new pavements and central reservations and after that a programme to improve the shopfronts. Watch this space!

Also see a constituents blog on this subject: http://www.fayyoung.org/?p=1629

It has been reported that the Council spent an extra £6.4 Million trying to deal with these and the committee report says that apart from extra salt, the Council bought 5 lorries and 8 mini tractors.  I believe that the Council should invest in machinery to ensure we can keep our roads open and our pavements safe.  My worry is that the Council does not have the flexibility to easily move staff from one job to another.  For example, teachers should go to their nearest school if they are unable to travel to their usual place of work and the bin men should grit the roads and the street cleaners should grit the pavements or replenish grit bins.

The Lib Dem/SNP Administration of the Council is intent on privatising waste collection, this means that costs in severe weather circumstances will be much higher as private contractors will be far less flexible that our own Council staff.   This also means that we may not save money - the reason the Lib Dems and SNP use for privatisation but it will definitely provide a worse service to Council tax payers which is something that they are not even pretending to care about.