Summary only: Edinburgh’s Budget Challenge

What are your priorities for the Council over the next three years? More than 3,500 responses were received to the Council’s budget engagement and the Council has listened.

You said – early years support and education of children should be a priority for the Council. The Council is continuing its investment of £4m in the Early Years Change Fund to protect the quality of service delivered to the very youngest children. An additional £5m of investment is being made in school buildings and facilities to help meet the demands of rising school rolls. You said – don’t increase charges for allotments. The Council is not increasing charges and has asked for a wider review of the allotments service to explore other revenue options suggested by allotment holders as part of the consultation. You said – keep Edinburgh Leisure facilities open. The Council will continue to work with Edinburgh Leisure to ensure sports facilities remain open. You said – fix roads and pavements and encourage more people to cycle. The Council is investing an additional £5m in roads and pavements over what was planned – a total investment figure of £20m. The Council has also committed to spend 8% of the transport budget on the creation and maintenance of the city’s cycle infrastructure. You said – the Council should protect front line services and support vulnerable people, while finding efficiencies in administration and back-office services. The Council is implementing it’s “Organise to Deliver” and “Better Outcomes Leaner Delivery” programmes which will result in major structural changes to the organisation, reducing the overall number of staff, developing existing staff and giving more control of how services are managed to local communities.

You can read about all the changes to the Council budget in 2015/16 on the Council website. A link to the report is included from the "Edinburgh's Budget Challenge" page above under "Related Information".