Pilton Sucks dotCom

The following comment was posted on Going Going Gone story.  We are looking for more information to find out if there is any truth in this story.

Last year, Councillor McGinnis and her Waterfront CEO Stephen Izatt hosted a very lavish and expensive St Andrews function for a few select friends. This was carried out at huge cost to the public purse. The event involved hosting a huge light show and display. However Instead of hiring the lights which were only required for the one evening, Councillor McGinnis and Waterfront CEO Stephen Izatt decided to purchase the lights brand new from a company called Black Light at huge cost. Their plan was to retain the lights and sell them privately at a later date.

However since they have come under scrutiny, Councillor McGinnis and Stephen Izatt have been unwilling to uplift the Lights which remain in storage at Black Light, incurring storage charges.

Thousands of pounds of public cash has been needlessly and wastefully and corruptly squandered.

If you have more information or any proof, please use the contact form to get in touch privately or leave a comment for open viewing.

 

Friends and Readers.There is a growing number of professionals  in their fields coming to the conclusion, something that we have known for a long time, that the Waterfront Project,is purely land speculation and little else. Thanks in the main to councillor Maginnis the community of Greater Pilton has been entirely excluded.

It is fair to say that if there were a straw poll in the community to ask how many residents knew what was going on, very few could answer that they did, that in itself tells a story.  Why the secrecy? What is there to hide?   Surely it is in everybody’s interest to see this community is told the truth.

The North Edinburgh News (NEN) does not seem to be willing to report on this huge project and the lack of local involvment, nor does the people’s representatives, odd dont you think?

The lack of community involvement and information rightly leads to suspicion that all is not well at the heart of the operation. There is only a handful of people that know what is really going on and they will not say, so what is the big secret that the community cannot be let in on?

PiltonSucks.com believes that it has become to much for councillor Maginnis to handle and she is way out of her depth, as skillful a politician she may be, the speculators and their friends are running rings round her and she appears to be sinking in the quicksand of manipulation and slight of hand.

This is not good news for this community and changes must be made soon if we are to have any gains for the existing community. We offer the good councillor some sound advice in an effort to support her and the community.

We sincerly believe a community waterfront committee with real teeth, that bite, should be put in place to offset the stampeding speculation that is currently the order of the day.  The only item on the agenda of the waterfront business community.

We are not against the advancement of others and believe that enrichment can benifit all. Unfortunatly in the case of the waterfront project this is not happening.

So we are aware that there are some very experienced people in this community and that experience should be put to good use. We would not for a minute suggest who should be on the waterfront committee, but a quick look at the local community councils shows us that some of these people are in place already.

We have no wish to embarrass anyone by mentioning who we think would do a good job but several candidates stand out, the only problem is would they agree to such a task.

Councillor Maginnis should show leadership and as soon as possible put this committee-with-teeth in place.  As recently as Thursday evening we spoke to a well known and experienced activist in Royston Wardieburn community centre who would not be drawn on anything personal, which we respected, but we put to him the idea of a waterfront committee, his reply was that if it brought positve gains to the community, it may well be worth looking at, as anything would if it empowered the existing community.

One interesting point he put to us which we have to be honest we did not think of, was had anyone so far carried out an impact on planning blight re-a study on the Greater Pilton area.  Dont know - does anyone?  If the good councillor is feeling the heat and she must be, get help do not try to do it all yourself, that can only lead to mistrust and suspicion, if you are at all politically astute then it makes complete sense to bring others on board to help manage the load, after all we are supposed to be a community, and what better way to involve the community and lay waste to speculation of a negative kind.  

Friends and readers. We now pay 38% of our income in taxes of one form or another, this is as much as we paid in the dark days of the 70s.Of course the average working person as usual will be hardest hit, and with the pensions running into crisis may have to work on past the current retiral age to give themselves a decent pension.

Now we also see the people’s party caught up in sleaze, selling peerages for cash and denying they knew anything about it,if you believe that you will believe anything.  Patronage is nothing new but we were promised a new start under Labour, but of course that has not happened, and sleaze has returned with a vengence.  So what do the ordinary party members think or are they relevent now, as it would seem that rich unelected donars can demand a covert seat in government.

Tony Blair’s final days in power is now tainted as was John Major’s final days this lead to the tories being destroyed at the polls, will the same thing happen to labour. We do not have to look to national government to find sleaze, for instance former labour group leader Keith Geddes received a consultancy contract from his cronies worth £90,000 pounds Trevor Davies private business dealings are worth closer scrutiny, John Mulvey another former group leader was given a contract to look at poverty, Elizabeth Maginnis and her close ties with the Waterfront’s chief executive.

It seems two fingers are been shown to the voters as our rulers weave their tangled web, of course panic may well be setting in as the voting system changes for the next council elections and feathering the nest is the order of the day.  These so called councillors have been hiding under the labour flag using their positions to enhance their earnings and social standing, they are worse than the tories, because you expect it from them, but from the peoples party you expect better.

But many of them will try to cling on to power promising better days and more of them, but if the electorate has any sense, they will toss them out of office and return their own candidates so at least they will have an opportunity to get accountability and straight answers.

Greater Pilton has such an opportunity, we at PiltonSucks.com hope you take it and return your own candidates emptying the old guard who have for so long taken it for granted  that the punters will vote for them because they always have.  But times change and new people emerge. As you would expect PiltonSucks.com follows local issues closely and have in the past been to a number of public meetings and listened to the concerns on the various issues discussed.

We have spoken to local people who have become increasingly sceptical and angered about what is going on and we have heard a couple of names put forward as contenders in the coming local elections. As we travel round the area One person in particular has been mentioned freqently, we would not wish to put undue pressure on him by asking if he would be prepared to stand or even name him on this site, but he is well respected in the community and we have spoken to him over the phone, in fact as recently as Thursday 16-3-06 and asked him if he would be interested in standing if he felt the community would support him. His reply which he said we could publish was to say that at the present time he had no plans to stand and was quite happy to be a community activist,although at times he felt some issues could be dealt with a more delicatly.

He also mentioned that he has been reading our site and expressed concern about our anti bullying campaign and in particular the case of the MUIRHOUSE TWO which he felt was if our facts were correct-and they are- should be dealt with at a local level with local elected members taking a bigger interest.

So Friends and readers you can see although we are surrounded by tax and sleaze there is still a window of hope there are people prepared to come forward and be counted despite the possibilty of being excluded, communitys are not without people who do think that it may be time to change both direction and priorities. These people who ever they are should not be ridiculed and rubbished and dismissed as trouble makers, remember your history if it were not for people fighting the status quo were would we be now, still serfs tugging our fore lock to some pompus stuck up twit, come to think of it history has a habit of repeating itself if it is not nipped in the bud. 

Friends and readers. On Friday 17-03-06 there is to be a grand getogether of the great and the good to discuss how best to move forward with what has been dubbed the Forth Rivera. However it is by invitation only so the plebs will not be able to be there.

What is noticeable is the absense of community activists who might say something different than the party line. We question whether all the Pilton Partnerships reps have been invited and how much notice they received. This is really a back slapping exercise designed to allow the great and the good to hear the sound of their own voices.

What is needed at this private party is a voice that will be independent and tell it how it is, how the existing community is being excluded how no local labour charter is in place, where is the affordable homes, what kind of access will the existing community get.

PiltonSucks.com is saddened because this will be another wasted opportunity to get some real information into what is going on. We are also saddened but not supprised to learn that one of the leading activists one with an independant mind and voice a rep on the partnership board has not been invited and we understand was only given a couple of days notice. This of course smells but is typical of a closed mind mentality.

When we asked Mr. Marinello for a comment he declined and told us he was unable to make the meeting, we asked how many of the other reps were invited he did not know that either.

 PiltonSucks.com is in nobodys pocket and is concerned that any activist never mind an experienced one is not offered an invite to an event of such importance. Are we just to be fed the same old rubbish as we are used to, it looks like it, once again exclusion is the name of the game, inclusion for some as long as they tow the line.

What has become of those who can be bought with a sandwich and a glass of cheap wine, this is about the future and how it will be shaped  If activists who have an opinion of their own are not invited because the local rulers decide it would not be in the intersts of the majority, the majority we might say that was put together by those with a self interest to protect.

So although we could not get a comment from one leading activist his silence speaks volumes and tells us that as usual if your face does not fit then you do not get to go to the ball. Well to hell with it for without independant minded people we are all just nodding dogs in the back of the car.

Friends and Readers all is quite as we await the new communtiy charge books which should be droping on our door steps very shortly.  The glee on the faces of the Labour aristocracy, the deafening silence of delight, the massive slaps of self congratulations at their briilance at being able as they tell us to keep the increase to a minimum, we should not vote for them it only encourages them.

So as the Water of Leith slowly flows on and on and on….. so does the noble rulers of the city confident in the fact that whatever they do they can con the plebs into believing it is for their own good, but they just do not realise it.

Should not our noble rulers come out of their gilded palace come into the communities and explain to the punters exactly what it is that we do not understand.  Give us your words of wisdom dazzle us with your intellects, and give us plebs some of your very important time in an attempt to make us understand what is good for us and how we will all be better off in the long run.

We at PiltonSucks.com are convinced that the people would sit open mouthed in anticipation of what was to come. Unfortunatly we are giving our rulers a little to much credit, it is far more likely that you will be ignored and ridiculed in your efforts to get any kind of sense from that lot.

But like any bad smell they will linger on for a while, one or two might try and con the punters into voting them into the Scottish Parliment, some might take the money and run to their outside interests, and the rest, well they will just squabble over who is to be the new leader of a depleted labour group, or how they can get rid of Provost hHnds so they can put Cardownie in and asure themselves of an extra vote if neccessary.

The rest of us mere mortals, we just go on picking up the tab slowly but surely being ground down till our resistance is all but gone.

But have faith my good friends sometimes the greatest plans of mice and men can be changed, so do not let this tale make you despondent, all is not lost.  You the residents of Greater Pilton have the power in those little wooden polling booths you go into every so often. This time when you do, examine the ballot carefully and take a moment to think, how can my communty benifit who best can do the job that is required, when you have done that look down the list of names, and vote with your head not with the party propaganda they try and brainwash you with.

You might get a pleasant suprise some people might emerge who you think can do a better job than the last lot, so when the time comes please vote it really is important, but of equal importance is, make the right choice and have a long memory think back four years and remember the stories you were told and how many of them had a happy ending, not many.

And as we meander through the maze of lies, downright lies and statistics, take heart from the fact that you can change it you and only you.  Promises do not mean a dam thing if in the end all you get is shafted and then told it is good for you.  Friends and readers ask the question why and keep asking it, why have we not been included in the new Jerusalem why can we not get access to the wealth that is being created on the Waterfront why are we being excluded.  Why do we have to settle for second best why do we have services that are second rate.  We are entitled to share in the wealth that is being created not just sidelined some sort of freak show to be looked at by our new richer neighbours in their overpriced rubbish.

No my good readers you can demand more and with justification after all you have stayed loyal to the labour aristocracy, but they have sold you off and cheaply.

Well readers and friends, it seems our good councillor Elizabeth Maginnis is advocating the development of a casino within the Waterfront Development, no doubt in Granton so she can continue to live the good life which her many interests allows her to do. Who voted for this person, surely the last thing we need is more gambling and its associated problems.

This is pure stupidity. We are told it could attract up to 30,000 visitors - SO WHAT!  What she should be pursuing is trying to bring in real sustainable employment to the Granton area not another organisation designed to fleece the punters of their money. It would be far more benificial if Ms Maginnis used her time more productivly- say in her role as Chair of the  very secretive Waterfront Board to secure some of the 9,000 jobs she herself told us there would be available for the local punters,

From the Evening News:

Speaking at yesterday’s full council meeting, Granton councillor Elizabeth Maginnis, said: “If this casino was sited in Granton then you could see up to 30,000 visitors coming to one of the most deprived parts of the city. This development would also bring benefits to the rest of the city.”

It is time that Ms. Maginnis seriously considered her position and real role in this community, possibly she should consider resigning as local councillor - you can almost feel the sigh of relief coming from the community.

PiltonSucks.com believes the casino proposal is a nonsense and does not even bear a second thought. We also feel that gambling and the casino groupies who frequent these places would certainly not enhance the community rather give it yet another blight in its makeup.  One of the ways to rub a community’s face in it is to create an even bigger divide between the haves and the have nots.

Friends and readers this ludicrous idea comes from, wait for it , A LABOUR COUNCILLOR the ordinary peoples party dedicated to lifting the scurge of poverty from our communitys. Doing a good job is she not?

Readers and Friends, take a moment from your hectic lives to close your eyes and allow yourself to dream, to dream of meandering down Waterfront Avenue looking at the pavements that glisten in the early evening almost like gold dust sprinkled in front of you, and as you continue your pleasant stroll you will pass Caroline House and along to yet another building site with the ridiculous name of upper strand.com

But fear not as reality bites in the shape of a sculptured bronzed couple going to the beach.  The lady with a child, the lad with the boat and the man, cloth cap in hand.  Look if you will at them in from a short distance you would swear that the man was looking up at the swanky new development, puzzled as to why he cannot and will never be allowed or encouraged to improve his families lot, and that his life span would be a lot shorter than the residents of swank towers.

Could it be that his life will be cut short by some illness which might have been avoided if he could have afforded the medicine or will his children be given the opportunity in education and employment he never had. Yes friends and readers thank goodness that kind of living is in the past.

But as you leave the soon to be leafy suburbs of Waterfront Avenue the dream is over and suddenly you wake to find yourself at home in a chair with the tv on and a news presenter informing the nation of crisis in the N.H.S.,  education failing our children and employment - oh yes at record levels - but as you know, not were you live.

Thank goodness I woke from that dream.  God only knows how we could have lived with conditions that those poor people remembered in sculpted bronze had to put up with. 

Friends and readers. If you care to take a walk through Royston as we do regularly, you to will have seen if not had a mishap on them the ever decreasing state of the pavements and the roads. It would seem dear friends the local council have lots of spare cash for speedbumps judging by the amount they have built in Wardieburn and Royston.  Not everybody is a “boy racer.”

Indeed some of the -TRAGIC CALMING METHODS - are like mountains and you would need a landrover to get over them certainly a case of over-enthusiasim.  Is it not just as important to have safe pavements and streets free from bear trap potholes and seismic cracks in the pavements. With so many potholes around the community its amazing that no one has seriously hurt them selves but then people probably know where they are.

Edinburgh has so many potholes our rulers should get it put in the tourist guide Wecome to Edinburgh but watch were you walk and put a spare suspension kit in the back of your car-just in case.

P.S. One place that won’t be in the guide, guess where?  Yes you are right - THE WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT - in fact the Pilton punters  might even be barred form their streets just in case the punters moving in catch the local disease the pothole syndrome.

 

Friends and readers our green spaces are quickly dissapearing to be replaced by housing mostly private mostly out of reach for the average punter in the greater pilton community. The enviromental problems are plainly obvious as is the running down of the existing community. Now our rulers have a good excuse for not investing in the existing stock, blame the tenants who voted no in the recent ballot that took place on stock transfer.

We are now facing the reality of a concrete jungle, only part of the jungle will be substancially richer than the other. In their obscene haste to sell any part of land that our rulers can get away with they forget that as human beings and not just voting fodder we need to be able to see and breath in greenery.

We at PiltonSucks.com are saddened that our rulers have no vision when it comes to green space just a desire to make money and dam what anyone else has to say, in fact completly dissmissed and written off as trouble makers.

You in the near future may reap what you sow or in this case what you allow to be built, so stop and think for a moment and see what you are allowing to happen, green replaced by grey for the sake of greed

Friends and readers a new dawn is approaching us with a new purpose built community centre in the grounds of royston school. Sounds good does it not but let us dig a little deeper and what is revealed is not quite so exiciting and dynamic.

Some time ago a survey went out into the community asking them about their preferences regarding a new centre. A clear majority of surveys returned suggested a demolition and rebuild on the same site in pilton drive north. So far so good ah but wait on this did not happen what the residents were first offered by our rulers was a community wing used mainly for meeting places for outside organisations thereby geting rid of the old centre and all its baggage and replacing it with something that would exclude the community.

It is worth mentioning that public money had been used for a feisability study, pilton sucks believes it to have been around 9000 pounds to tell the community what it already knew.Two scale models were also produced and at a public meeting option b was chosen.

Somewhere along the line major changes were made without any consultation with the community and the end product as mentioned was a community wing. So a debate started which at times became quite heated as emotions ran quite high,but instead of looking to our rulers to explain themselves as to why they were selling us out a depression fell across the community feeling once again they had been let down.

But fear not after a long and somewhat heated debate the community has its new centre complete with a sports hall of comparable size, all’s well that ends well - not quite.

It would now seem, according to one source that after being promised a new centre, once again the community is about to let down again because we are now told that there is a million pound shortfall. This is completely unaceptable - promises were made they must be kept! Our local rulers seem to be to pre-occupied with forelock tugging to the land speculators of the waterfront development, they seem to have forgotten that it is the people who put them there, it is the people who will remove them.

The desperation to grab the land on which the community centre stands and sell it to their developer friends is reaching fever pitch.  What even more shoe box like houses to be built surely not but it would seem thats what will happen, as our rulers are tucked up in bed even more tightly with the speculators than before, so the community is really just an irritant getting in the way of progress

Progress my friends! We at PiltonSucks.com think not.

We have a suggestion to make and the elections are next year. Why not punish our rulers at the ballot box they will take it for granted at being re-elected as one party member let slip to us. This is safe labour territory we will walk in. Oh will they be complacent indeed.

We at PiltonSucks.com have followed events in greater Pilton for some considerable time and in particular our attention has been attracted to an activist who has been suggesting it is time for a community candidate to step forward and plug the gap. We suggest this person stands and puts back some dignity into a community which has had its self-respect and dignity slowly stripped away over the years.

Be in no doubt readers, the community of greater Pilton needs political change as a matter of urgency to save what is left of the community’s heart and soul.  So act now be ready to take up the baton and run with it.  It is your community it is not the property of some past its sell by date political party, but the living breathing embodiment of its residents. 

The proposed new centre is an opportunity to grab the initiative and let our rulers know that it is the residents of Royston Wardieburn who will demand nothing less than a community centre for all the residents and encourage everyone all over the community to use and support it. This new centre is long overdue, do not let our rulers sell us short.