Edinburgh's cash-strapped Council is in a deep financial hole.
But, determined always to look on the bright side of life, they want your ideas about how to 'maintain, develop and improve services'.
To this end, Leith and City Centre Neighbourhood Partnerships have called a special joint meeting (lasting up to 1.5 hours) for 6.30pm at McDonald Road Library on 22 November. Senior managers will attend and, apparently, all present will be able to contribute.
In classic bureaucratese, the invitation says feedback from the meeting will '[help] to inform the settting of future service priorities within the Council'.
Some will interpret this as disingenuous puff, just another CEC public-relations stunt designed to give the appearance of listening whilst actually being more interested in promoting the [understandable] Council position that difficult choices must be made.
According to this sceptical line of thinking, rather than seeking ways of maintaining, developing and improving services, the carefully steered meeting will essentially address how to do without, reduce, or offload services onto the private sector whilst muddying the waters over who is to blame.
Cynics say that, despite assurances of an open floor for contributors resident in the Leith/City Centre area, If past form is anything to go by, Council employees present will be barred from airing fears and grievances.
Spurtle tries always to remain positive, and can see the democratic logic of inviting extra public input at a time of exceptional financial strain. We therefore urge readers to keep an open mind and attend the meeting in good faith.
We certainly place no credence in the rumour that any members of the public attending are to be pressganged as Snow Wardens. The Snow Warden scheme is entirely voluntary, and you can find out more about it here: Tel. 529 3687.