Lib Dem councillors win more money for schools, trees, and tackling child poverty

Liberal Democrat councillors in the City Chambers won key concessions to the Labour administration budget on Thursday 22nd February, including;

• 🏫 £2 million for devolved school management budgets, to provide extra money for each and every primary and secondary school.
• 🚌 £300,000 to deliver the network of supported bus services, recognising the importance of delivering public transport where the commercial market has failed to do so.
• 🌳 £300,000 to provide extra tree officers to plant more trees and deliver the Million Tree City project by 2030.
• 🔥 £200,000 to increase the capacity of the LHEES Office by creating a new Heat Network Officer role and increasing the total project budget of the LHEES Office by £145k.
• 🚽 £100,000 to install temporary public toilets in parks.
• 💷 £500,000 to proactively support families to maximise their income through providing advice on benefits and related issues to reduce child poverty.
• 🏡 £117,000 to boost Discretionary Housing Payments.
• 🔦 £75,000 to make safety improvements for active travel on off road paths.
• 🎶 £50,000 to provide enforcement & signage to address amplified busking.
• 🎂 £250,000 to fund Edinburgh’s 900th anniversary.

These proposals are now part of the City of Edinburgh's expenditure for Financial Year 2024/25.

Group leader Councillor Kevin Lang said "The debate over the last few months was on how to stop the cuts. We believed that wasn't good enough, so not only have we stopped the cuts, we've got £2m extra into schools. That's money that teachers themselves in each and every school will decide how to invest."

The full budget and amendments can be read on edinburgh.gov.uk.