Dear Spurtle
Following your article on CEC spending in excess of £40,000 on the KEYFRAMES lights in St Andrew Square [Issue 249, p.1], for me it’s another example of City of Edinburgh Council’s apparent inability to prioritise spending.
For example. we all know about the redundancies that CEC staff are facing while this £40,000 goes on a temporary light show.
Here’s another example of alternative ways the Council could have decided to spend that money.
The table below, from CEC, shows how many reports made on the Councils’s online facility in relation to road or pavement or gullies/drains were outstanding on 9 February 2016.
If CEC had decided to prioritise that expenditure in another way, quite a few of these outstanding problems might have been addressed more rapidly perhaps.
Keith Cowan
(Antigua Street)
[On 4 March, CEC announced creation of a dedicated neighbourhood staff to coordinate an intensive programme of road and pavement repairs, concentrating on main arterial routes. Transport Convener Lesley Hinds said, 'As a Council , we are committed to ensuring the city is safe and accessible for all those living and visiting it, and we're always looking at ways of improving our streets, despite budget constraints.' See also Letters, 2.2.16—Ed. ]