Last month we aired Blandfield resident Mark Sheffield's misgivings over City of Edinburgh Council's withdrawal of the one-free-special-uplift-per-household-per-year service. He suspected it would prove counter-productive by encouraging far more fly-tipping on local streets and alleys (Breaking news 5.5.10). He wrote to local councillors voicing his doubts.
Councillor Louise Lang has now replied. At a personal level, she shares Mr Sheffield's concerns, and took up the matter with Vice-Convenor of Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Robert Aldridge. Councillor Aldridge agreed that, ideally, the Council would not charge for the special uplift, but argued other options to meet that required saving would have been even more unpalatable (for example, reductions in street cleansing and recycling).
Councillor Aldridge noted that Edinburgh was the only local authority to offer such a free service just before it imposed a charge. He also pointedly remarked that there had been all-party support when the number of free uplifts was reduced to one per year in a previous budget round.
So, after a little sighing and shrugging and sympathetic sniffling into the Administration handkerchief, councillors left Mr Sheffield with only a promise that the situation will be kept under review.
This combination of responses – anguish at difficult choices, a greater good honourably favoured over personal regrets, and (the skeleton key with which to close all doors) budgetary imperatives – are nothing new and are certainly not exclusive to this situation and these individuals. However, budgetary imperatives are genuinely so pressing at the moment that we must expect to hear the like a great deal more often over the coming months and years.