PILRIG PARK AND PLAYGROUNDS
If elected, how would you deploy Council resources to improve park and playground/s - and use of both - substantially? What other resources would you be able to find?

SHRUB PLACE
Do you think the present proposals for the redevelopment of the site are adequate? If elected, how would you deploy Council resources to ensure the best possible solution is found?

ROSEBANK WORKS/BROWN BROTHERS
Do you think the proposed re-development is suitable for the site? How would you ensure the proposed development adds maximum value to Pilrig?

PILRIG STREET TRAFFIC
Do you support reduction and slowing of car traffic through Pilrig Street? If elected, what measures would you support and actively promote?

URBAN DESIGN
Do you think bland design can ever be justified? If elected, how would you ensure that future new buildings in Pilrig and its periphery add value in urban design terms?

MOST PRESSING ISSUE FOR PILRIG
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing Pilrig and how would you solve it if your are elected; how would you tackle it, if you are not elected?

PUBLIC SERVICES
Do you subscribe -without qualification - to the following principles? If not, why not?
· knee-jerk measures that react to short-term pressures are counter-productive.
· public services should meet the needs of citizens, not the convenience of service providers.
· we deserve efficient, high quality public services; there should be no room for mediocrity.
· public services should use new technology to meet the needs of citizens and not trail behind technological developments.

Thank you for your invitation to express my views on the questions you put.

I live in Leith with my partner and three grown up sons.

I am presently a student at Moray House doing a post graduate course in Community Education. I hope to work within the Community Education service when I complete the course next year.

Between 1996 and 2000 I studied for and gained a joint honours degree in Politics and Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh.

I was an active member of the Edinburgh 'Play Safe Campaign', a group which sought to provide safe, secure play areas for children throughout Edinburgh. We successfully persuaded the City Council to fund playgrounds and park redevelopment where safe surfaces, safe equipment, fencing and various other improvements were provided in the Leith area.

Lack of space here prevents me from listing all the campaigns I have been involved in in the past, but at the moment I am involved in the work of the Lothian Anti Poverty Alliance and my local tenants group in Hamilton and Canon Wynd.

I joined the Scottish Socialist Party in November last year and am currently the Chair of the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency branch. I joined because I believe that the SSP is the only party that really supports local people in their attempts to improve their community and their environment.

On your Questions.

The Scottish Socialist Party wants to see the billions of pounds taken from local authorities in the past 20 years, under both Tory and Labour administrations, returned in full .

This is important to state because it impacts on all your questions.

I do not accept for a moment that the current financial restrictions placed on local councils are just. The money needed for the projects you mention in Broughton could easily be found if the political will existed. We need money spent in local communities, lots of it, I believe that the funds are plentiful in Edinburgh, Scotland and indeed Britain for such improvements. It is therefore a question of how are we going to get it.

Second point is related. I would scrap the Council tax . It is unfair and bears no relation to income. I would replace it with a local income tax where the rich pay substantially more and the poorest are exempt. This would provide extra funds for local areas.

It is clear to me, as I am sure it is to you, that there are many worthy and necessary improvements which urgently need to be made throughout the ward.

As far as you specific questions are concerned, about Pilrig Park, Shrub Place, Rosebank and Pilrig Street it seems to me that these, like virtually everywhere else in Broughton , are either under pressure from private housing development or are already construction sites.

Two issues therefore arise for me here. First, if there is to be housing built in the Broughton area then I would like to see public housing on these sites, not private.

Second, our environment is suffering badly. Redevelopment has eaten away at the character of the area. Opportunities for young people to live in this area, where they were brought up, are increasingly difficult.

I have been pressing for significantly improved traffic-calming measures for many years, only to be fobbed off by Council claims that their was no funds available.

Children's safety ought to be given a higher priority than it has been under the local Labour administration.

Public Services.

I believe that effectively managed public services are preferable to private provision. I am therefore opposed to the rampant privatisation of services by Edinburgh City Council.

The provision of the highest quality local services should be something we take for granted. Mediocrity comes with cost cutting and poor compromises on principles carried out by locally elected Councillors.