Breath Taking
Friends and readers. Pilton Sucks has caught sight of a document which shows North Edinburgh [Forth Neighbourhood Partnership] is to receive a savage cut to it’s grant of £800,000.
This is devastating news and will have serious repercussions for all of the grant funded projects in this community. For all the talk of the North Edinburgh SIP being a showpiece for the rest of Scotland we have been rewarded with this breath taking cut.
Pilton Sucks is informed that the grant allocation is based on population distribution.If that’s the case lets take a closer look at this.
If we look at example at the Portobello/Craigmillar ward which has a total population of 24,130 they receive a cut of 100,000,yet with the capacity building project due to close this takes care of their cut. So in reality it’s no cut at all.
Now if we look at the Forth ward population we see a total population of 29,412 nearly 5 thousand more of a population and we receive an £800,000 cut,so that argument is a nonsense.
The £1 million pound allocation which we will receive may well mean some projects have to close and the services they deliver will stop.
Who is responsible for this genocide type cut to this community. We are told officials drew up this plan,who elected them to take this decisions. Our 4 elected local members must stand together forgetting political differences to rebuke this savage cut alongside the local MSP and MP.
Approximately 16 projects in this community receive grant fund including such projects as The highly regarded North Edinburgh Childcare which at the moment receives £403,394, Granton Information Centre which receives £123,708, North Edinburgh news which receives £73,102 and the Granton Youth Centre which receives £93,670,all these projects and more will be cut and cut deeply if the £800,000 is divided equally amongst all the projects,in fact several could disappear altogether,Edinburgh Activist Training,Community Voices North,Stepping stones,with other projects coming close behind.
Who allowed this to happen why are officials allowed to wield such an axe,where is the community consultataion,and if Pilton Sucks can see what may happen then our elected members certainly should.
This community has a good record and one to be proud of in delivering services to the most vulnerable members of our community,this is now in real danger. So if these services disappear does our Local council pick up the slack?
This night of the long knives savagery must be reversed and common sense rule the day. The community will suffer and the politicians will be blamed and rightly so.
Elected members take the decisions not appointed officials with their own agendas,and if these cuts materialise then it is the elected members who will feel the wrath of the community and feel it where it hurts the most,at the ballot box.