Consultation and Engagement Hub

Every year the City of Edinburgh Council’s justice services conducts a Community Payback consultation to gather the public’s views on Community Payback Orders (CPO) which are given by the Court to people as an alternative to a prison sentence, to pay for their crimes. We asked about the unpaid work part of a CPO; this is when an individual who has committed an offence does unpaid work in the community.

We asked about general awareness of CPOs and unpaid work.

We asked whether you thought unpaid work helped to reduce offending.

We asked whether you thought unpaid work gave people the opportunity to pay for their crimes.

We asked for your suggestions about community projects or organisations that could benefit from unpaid work.

We received 54 responses for the 2025 consultation.

The majority of respondents (94%) were either fully or partly aware of CPOs, with 6% of respondents saying they had no awareness.

There was a very high level of awareness of unpaid work with 94% of respondents stating they were fully aware of unpaid work with the remaining 6% having partial awareness.

Respondents were less clear on whether community payback helped to reduce reoffending. For example, 63% were fully or partly confident that it did. However, 30% were unsure. 7% of respondents reported that they did not believe community payback reduced offending.

91% of respondents thought that community payback gave people who have committed offences the opportunity to pay for their crimes either fully or in part.  9% were unsure or disagreed, believing that unpaid work did not present the opportunity to pay back to the community for crimes committed.

Community payback as an option to support communities was popular with 69% of respondents stating that they thought unpaid work could be of benefit to them, their organisation, or their community.

Respondents were invited to make suggestions for how community payback could support their community. 89% put forward ideas for unpaid work, community projects, and organisations that could benefit from the service.  

The level of awareness of unpaid work and community payback is high amongst respondents to this consultation. However, it is clear that there is less confidence amongst respondents that community payback reduces reoffending. A short report on headline community justice data will be published on the Council’s website (community justice webpage) in January 2026. The report will consider and highlight relevant research in this area. 

To continue to raise awareness of the value of community payback further, justice services will publish a Community Payback Annual Report on the Council’s website in Spring 2026 providing examples of unpaid work and how it has benefitted local communities. Justice services also plan to work with staff from the Council’s media team to share more good news stories of how unpaid work has improved communities.

All suggestions submitted for unpaid work projects will be passed to the unpaid work team for consideration. 

Justice services would like to thank everyone who took part in the consultation.

We asked for your views on proposals to improve walking, wheeling and cycling in Currie.

The proposals focus on

• improving access to Curriehill train station, local schools, shops and the medical centre, and
• providing safer crossings, improved cycle access and traffic calming around the schools.

The engagement was promoted using

• posters in local shops, schools and community centres,
• leaflets delivered throughout the project area,
• articles in the C&B News, and
• posts and event listings on the Council’s social media channels.

The project team spoke with a great variety of community and stakeholder groups. We held a public drop-in event in the local library on 16^th June, where people could view proposals and speak with the project team.

A total of 310 people responded to the questionnaire online and on paper.

Detailed results can be found in the full consultation report. Key findings were:

• Just over 70% of respondents supported and just under 22% opposed the implementation of formal crossings at the junction of Riccarton Avenue and Curriehill Road to help pupils and students safely cross the road.
• Almost 63% of respondents supported and 18% opposed the creation of a cycle path beside the current footpath between Curriehill Road and Palmer Road. The remaining 20% of respondents were neutral.
• 75% of respondents supported and 16% opposed a signalised crossing at Currie Primary School to help pupils safely cross the road to the Primary school.
• Just under 49% of respondents supported and 35% opposed footway widening and a section of one-way street at the Primary School between Curriehill Road and Palmer Road. The remaining 16% were neutral.
• Almost 91% of respondents supported the implementation of a ramp to access the medical centre and shops from Pentland View, 3% opposed the proposal. 
• 65% of respondents supported and 20% opposed the proposals to improve crossing the junctions around Pentland view and Curriehill Road. Around 15% were neutral.
• Almost 70% of respondent supported and 13% opposed proposals to improve crossing the junction south of Currie Highschool. Around 17% were neutral.
• 54% of respondents supported and 25% opposed the proposal to reduce the road width to one lane to create a safer crossing towards the Highschool. 21% of respondents were neutral.

People were also asked if they had any further suggestions to improve walking, wheeling and cycling in the local area, to which we received 191 responses. These can be found in the consultation report. Suggestions that relate to the project area and fall within the scope of the contributions have been taken into consideration and some of these will be taken forward.

Following the responses of the consultation and further discussions with the Primary and High schools and Lothian Buses, we are considering some changes to the original proposals, including:

• Section of one-way street at the Primary School between Curriehill Road and Palmer Road:  we are considering conducting a trial before making any permanent changes. The one-way street will only be made permanent if the evaluation of the trial shows a positive change for people walking and wheeling in this area.
• Curriehill Road: we are considering implementing three zebra crossings - one just south of Riccarton Mains Road, one at the Primary School and one just north of Lanark Road.

For your feedback and suggestions to help us to develop a revised Sustainable Procurement Strategy to replace the previous Strategy expiring in March 2025.

The Council’s Procurement Strategy focuses on how we purchase and will focus on promoting economic, environmental and social outcomes that support sustainable growth within the city as well as addressing the significant challenges that the city is facing.

We collected feedback through a variety of different methods, including an online survey, in person workshops, one to one conversations and a well-attended Meet the Buyer event held on 14^th November 2024 in Waverley Court.

We received 61 responses from the Consultation Hub and many more through other engagement methods.

You strongly agreed, that:

• Procurement spend should be more accessible to local organisations and support the growth of local businesses and supply chains
• We should support the creation of more and better fair work opportunities for local people
• We should work with contractors who will support the Council’s environmental and social goals and seek to eliminate unethical practices throughout its supply chain
• We should focus procurement spend to promote the Real Living Wage and wider fair work objectives
• We should focus procurement spend to tackle the climate and nature emergencies and develop adaptation solutions to respond to current and future climate change impacts
• We should focus procurement spend to maximise community benefits to deliver jobs, training opportunities and meaningful improvements within our communities

You agreed that:

• We should focus procurement spend to deliver savings and Best Value outcomes through innovative and sustainable solutions

Based on the feedback we received, we drafted an updated Sustainable Procurement Strategy for 2025-2030 which was recirculated amongst elected members for comment and feedback. The final draft Strategy was approved by the Finance and Resources Committee on 13 March this year.

The Sustainable Procurement Strategy 2025-2030 sets out the Council’s key strategic procurement objectives which deliver the Council’s Business Plan Objectives. The three priorities are to:

1. Maximise the Community Wealth Building outcomes from our procurements for the benefit of our communities and the city
2. Deliver contracts that help meet the Council’s commitment to the climate and nature emergencies and deliver a just transition
3. Deliver savings and Best Value outcomes through innovative and sustainable solutions