Vote for Pete Gregson on 9th March

Download Pete’s election flyer here NOTE: If elected, Pete will resign his job in order to focus on Council duties IN THE PRESS: 8/2/23 at Corstorphine/Murrayfield by election – Pete Gregson Independent | The Edinburgh Reporter and on 2/3/23 at Corstorphine/Murrayfield by election – Pete Gregson – Independent candidate | The Edinburgh Reporter and 7/3/23 at Edinburgh Corstorphine-Murrayfield by-election candidates make final pitch ahead of vote – Edinburgh Live and on 8/3/23 at Edinburgh council: By-election will choose new councillor for vacant seat in Corstorphine/Murrayfield | Edinburgh News (scotsman.com)

ELECTION RESULTS: Pete got 295 votes- see Local Government by-elections results – The City of Edinburgh Council; the seat was taken by the Lib Dems on 4,577 votes

Page Contents:

FOR AN EFFICIENT, RESPONSIVE COUNCIL

Vote for a candidate that puts Corstorphine/Murrayfield first!

Vote for this NHS worker who has lived in the area for over 20 years and knows Balgreen, Broomhall, Carrick Knowe, Corstorphine, Murrayfield, Ravelston, Roseburn and Saughtonhall.

A candidate who acts for what’s best for the area, rather than blindly following the party line and everything the Council officers propose. Edinburgh, the most officer-driven Council in Scotland, with the highest number of mandarins getting over £100,000, has ignored the electorate too often. Residents vote for Councillors (who are paid as part-timers on £19,500k pa) to govern, but most admit that it is unelected officers (on 30k-plus) that run the show. Our local politicians usually accept the recommendations of their highly-paid unelected corporate managers, sometimes to the city’s detriment.

Edinburgh has lost control to its bureaucrats

MORE DEMOCRACY PLEASE

Vote for a candidate that will dig into the detail and make a difference. Your Tory, SNP and LibDem Councillors have consistently voted through poorly conceived schemes, only realising very recently the damage they do to trade. Pete has been campaigning against Council mismanagement for many years, with numerous petitions and flyering campaigns against madcap projects, short-sighted decisions and bad bureaucracy.

Pete collects signatures for the whistleblower hotline in Princes Street

The weakness of local democracy in Edinburgh is exemplified in white elephants like at least half of the CCWEL (£20M) and the poorly designed tram scheme (£1Bn) which never deliver the benefits officers promote. Your elected Councillors have for the past 20 years nodded through these schemes with disastrous results for shops and road users.

CITY CENTRE WEST EAST LINK (CCWEL) FIBS

We cyclists already have National Cycle Route 1 that goes from Roseburn to Haymarket- but the Council left this off its proposals when it pitched the CCWEL cycle track consultation. And it included responses from as far afield as Holland, from people who would never see their scheme. In fact, 78% of the respondents neither lived in the area nor in any postcode to the west of the track. A tenth didn’t even live in Lothian. But the cycling officials used these responses to claim support. From the outset, information was manipulated by the officers to push this project- and our politicians swallowed it all.

The economic case in the CCWEL Project Justification Report centred around “reduced sickness-related absenteeism” (as the officers argued we’d all be healthier); it completely ignored any impact on businesses. When this was pointed out, officials responded by saying traders would benefit significantly from CCWEL as it would bring new customers. Experience has proven how daft this claim was, with businesses losing up to 70% of their turnover, because customer parking has been massively cut.

Pete paid for and put up this banner in Roseburn to help the traders in their struggle for help

CCWEL TO CORSTORPHINE?

The City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL), the protected cycleway that runs from Roseburn to Picardy Place, has wreaked havoc. It’s too late to stop the Roseburn to Haymarket stretch, but if it doesn’t deliver the benefits it promises, there is no way it should be extended to Corstorphine. When it was first mooted in 2014, officers told Councillors that it would lead to an 88% increase in cycling. The last survey that Murrayfield Community Council did, in Nov 2019 found there were 420 cycle journeys a day in Roseburn Terrace. If this does not increase to 790 journeys once the CCWEL is “bedded-in”, we should declare the project a failure.

To do this, we must get proper a proper evaluation of its Roseburn Terrace impact. The Council’s £340,000 monitoring scheme so far ignores two key bits of data from our shopping parade: cycling count and NO2 pollution levels.

PROPER EVALUATION IS NEEDED

One of the side-effects of the CCWEL is increased pollution- your candidate was ejected from the City Chambers in 2019 for pointing out the increased risk to those living and working on Roseburn Terrace, (including Ruth Davidson’s baby, if she brought it to work!), where the NO2 level was almost at the legal maximum of 40 µg/m3.

Since the Council removed the south side parking, the 22,000 motor vehicles that pass through the Terrace daily are 3m closer to homes, leading to higher pollution. But Council officers have moved the pollution monitor to a less-polluted location, in order to manipulate the impact of the CCWEL; Pete will lobby to get it put back, as he fears pollution there will breach UK Air Quality Standards. (see the film made with the retired SEPA air pollution expert at www.tinyurl.com/roseburnplume – and more information on previous efforts to get this matter addressed at CCWEL cycle link versus NCR1; traders compensation call; increased pollution – Kids Not Suits.com )

This pollution monitor was moved from outside Disposition cafe to a less polluted spot

As your Councillor, Pete will push to get the Roseburn cycling and pollution data collected and published.

The CCWEL has an eye-watering budget; in 2014 the Council declared it would cost £7M; 8 years later this had mushroomed to £20M. This was not because, as cycling officers claim, that there was opposition to their scheme; it was because consultants always underbudget in order to get these officer-driven projects off the ground- one only has to look at the trams and the Scottish Parliament building to see that. Officers recommend consultants who’ll give the pitch they want. But it is we who pick up the tab.

Roseburn has been dug up for almost a year now, with numerous periods of inactivity. The roadworks were due to finish in November; the massive over-run will have pushed costs even higher.

Cycling officials are determined to build cycle routes on main roads. If they insist, let’s have removable bollards – at a fraction of the cost.

This please- it’s cheaper (£1k), and easily removed if no cyclists come- bollards cost as little as £25 each

Whereas this cost £20M, has wrecked the Roseburn economy- and will hardly be used

Pete supports active travel but wants more carrot and less stick. As well as fighting expansion of the CCWEL, Pete will push for more routine maintenance- decent pavements, filling in potholes, safer junctions and crossing points, with new infrastructure projects built on genuine public consultation and proper impact assessment. Change must be trialled– cycling bollards are cheap and removable.

OTHER PRIORITIES FOR CLLR GREGSON WOULD BE:

Blocked gullies cause local flooding – they’re easily cleared

Edinburgh’s potholes are notorious and cause punctures

Edinburgh’s potholes are getting notorious because we have a Council that has diverted cash away from road repairs to CCWEL, yet cyclists suffers from potholes as much as anyone. Tyres are punctured; suspension and shock absorbers damaged- thanks to Council mismanagement. Labour convener Cllr Scott Arthur blames a limited budget but he has helped make it so; £20M (half from Council coffers) has disappeared into the CCWEL hole.

Let’s keep the Council on its toes: report blocked gullies to officers at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/gully
and potholes and bad pavements at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/roadproblem

BETTER ROADS AND PAVEMENTS

Edinburgh is beset by endless roadworks; better management of these is needed- their scheduling seems almost random. We should not see a situation where arteries close together are clogged by digs making passage slow and tortuous. Pete will push for effective oversight and scheduling of roadworks so that traffic moves smoothly. (Edinburgh Drivers face the worst traffic congestion in the UK, according to 2019 figures. Analysis by sat-nav manufacturer TomTom suggested that a typical rush hour journey in the Scottish capital takes 40% longer compared with free-flow conditions.)

Drivers need to know which roads are being worked on; the Council list of roadworks is not user-friendly. Pete will lobby to get the Council adding roadworks to online maps, so you can plan ahead. We have the technology to make our journey easier- we just need to start using it.

*one.network shows real-time roadworks but this is all it shows for Roseburn, where the right turn to Roseburn Street from the A8 has been curtailed for almost a year*

*If the Council uploaded more roadworks data to one.network then it could be then uploaded to satnavs*

Pete supports various measures to fund better roads and pavements– the regional delivery of transport and roads would save millions. Pete believes the tourism tax would bring in £24M to smarten up our city.

CORSTORPHINE CONNECTIONS

The Council is pressing ahead with changes which may impact on Corstorphine’s residential parking. The Corstorphine Connections – The City of Edinburgh Council scheme involves removing parking in order to widen pavements/ create on-street sitting and playspace- and to make some streets one-way in order to stop rat-running. Pete will ensure that residents are not disadvantaged by these changes.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING POINTS

The Council needs to expand the number of Electric vehicle charging points – The City of Edinburgh Council it has if it’s to meet its green targets. Tenement and flat-dwellers in particular need special consideration. If you have your own driveway you can charge your electric car up at home; but what if you don’t?

*A Council electric vehicle charging point*

At present the Scottish Government supports interest-free loans to buy a car through the Scotland’s Used Electric Vehicle Loan – Energy Saving Trust but if you have no driveway how are you to charge it?

The Council needs to step in by putting in more charging points for folk without driveways near their homes. Since both both on-street parking and charge points are limited- and it is antisocial to hog a charge point when you don’t need it- the Council should fine those who don’t move their cars once they’re charged. Drivers can get a text semt to their phone when their session is about to expire already, so that could be used if the parking bay doubles up for electric charging. This way, everybody gets the benefit of the charging points in busy areas.

*This petrol-driven parked car is blocking access to this electric vehicle charging point*

SMALLER CLASS SIZES AND BETTER PUPIL SUPPORT

If education was delivered on a regional basis across Scotland, it would allow £500M pa of resources to be redirected into our schools, reducing classroom sizes at a stroke with more learning support assistants too. Pete’s Parliamentary petition of 2016 spells out how it would work. Result? – happier teachers and pupils and higher attainment levels.

Pete would also like to see more adventurous teaching methods- more practical science with a return to traditional methods of experimentation and less powerpoint education. We need greater use of the net to encourage language learning, with class links to foreign schools (Zoom has made so many more activities possible). We need to reverse cuts in Education Welfare staff at schools- who help with young people’s mental health issues, cutting down bullying and truanting.

BETTER YOUTH FACILITIES

Pete will campaign for better youth facilities in Corstorphine/Murrayfield- basketball hoops, multi-use games areas, teen shelters; youth clubs too. For over 10 years Pete has helped run the 150th Craigmount Scout Group, as Treasurer and fundraiser.

2010 saw the launch of Kids not Suits, – supported by Labour, Conservative and Green politicians

BRING BACK ALLOTMENTS AT PANSY WALK

This land has for many years been used by the Council as a works depot for the trams, the flood prevention works and CCWEL. We must oppose Council plans for housing here and get this land given back to the community; the waiting list for allotments is enormous.

BALGREEN TUNNEL MURAL

As soon as Pete heard about the consultation on the Balgreen Tunnel mural project last October, he offered to assist in fundraising and running workshops to evolve a theme. The organisers suggest meeting him once Network Rail issues have been resolved. Pete has over 40 years experience in fundraising and has raised almost £2M for charities.

MORE FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Our ward has a higher number of retired citizens than other parts of the city and for almost 10 years Pete has been campaigning for better facilities for older people. Through the Friends of Roseburn Park, he raised the funds and organised the mural in Roseburn Park celebrating the civic defence function of the Armoury there; he has done the same with a carved log bench.

His crowdfunder to fund the conversion of the toilet block into a community café (supported by local Cllr Frank Ross, who pushed the Council to contribute), will soon reach fruition. It will be a great facility for bringing old and young together, encouraging new volunteering and park activities. Pete is part of the park volunteer task force, painting over graffiti and planting bulbs.

*Pete has worked for 10 years to see Roseburn Park’s old toilet block being refurbished into a community cafe- see the video at https://youtu.be/a0H3c9T829E*

*Pete organised a tree lopped as a result of flood prevention work to be carved into a log bench*

*Pete consulted the community to get the design right for this mural in Roseburn Park*

*Pete regularly cleans up the graffiti in the park*

MORE TEA DANCES AND MEN’S SHEDS

Pete is a strong supporter of bringing unused buildings back to life and if elected he will assist the Corstorphine Community Centre (CCC) in their efforts in applying for a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) which would result in CCC purchasing the Kirk Loan building they rent, allowing them to carry out upgrades which would increase accessibility, functionality and capacity.

CCC run a brilliant programme of warm places to go, with men’s sheds, lunch clubs and tea dances.
If elected, Pete will assist them in publicising and running an outreach programme to Balgreen,
Saughtonhall, Murrayfield and Roseburn.

HELPING LOCAL CAMPAIGNS- CORSTORPHINE POST OFFICE

On many occasions, Pete has helped residents lobby for action, with successful results- whether that be stopping noisy restaurants or fighting a school closure. The shutdown of Corstorphine Post Office is a blow. The petition by Cllr Euan Hyslop to Royal Mail that drew 400 signatures is a great start; Pete will help lobby for a replacement Post Office.

Pete persuaded Edinburgh Council to set up the whistleblower hotline of which they now boast- but got fired

MISMANAGED COUNCIL – WHISTLEBLOWER HOTLINE

In 2013 Pete led the campaign for a whistleblower hot line for Council Staff (see A safer mechanism for reporting Edinburgh Council mismanagement – The City of Edinburgh Council). At the time he was a Council worker and saw his Council colleagues being fired and hounded out of their jobs for trying to warn Councillors and traders of the mis-imagined benefits of the Trams and the property conservation scandal (which cost the city £40M). Assisted by local Cllrs Jeremy Balfour and Maggie Chapman, he won his campaign and the Council now boasts of the hotline. More here (but Pete was fired for campaigning!). The hotline saves the Council massive amounts on money in compensation for failures of management and puts the brakes on poor recommendations and bullying- especially where junior staff see disaster in the offing.

In the year after its launch, a schoolgirl victim of harassment by a teacher (who was being sheltered by Education Dept bosses) finally received justice when a youth worker used the hotline to inform the Council’s Governance Committee. Two years ago Susanne Tanner KC declared Pete’s hotline had “improved the culture of CEC to one that is more open and safer for whistleblowers than was previously the case”.

Pete is in favour of congestion charging if it reflects the terms of his 2016 Parliamentary Petition with protections for local people. Money raised would be used to improve roads, pavements and bring suburban rail networks back to use for Edinburgh commuters.

STUDENTS IN PRIVATE HOMES- BRING BACK LODGINGS

Residents with spare rooms could be helped to earn cash- by renting to students. Many would appreciate spending less. Student accommodation rents ‘up by a third in three years’ – BBC News Students struggle to afford rents of £1,000 pcm for a room and board, even with the huge loans they must take out; costs are getting so high that even the loans are insufficient. (Pete’s niece is still paying back £40 a week- 25 years after leaving college!)

Edinburgh has one of the highest student counts in the UK. There are too many student accommodation blocks going up in the city; these developments charge crazy rents for a room and they just profit from the lifelong debt that this pushes students into. Pete is primarily concerned that this means flats for families and single people are not being built. Edinburgh Universities don’t run a service to find lodgings for students who could be accommodated in local homes.

Yet 40 years ago, it was common for students to take lodgings with a family. There are so many empty-nesters in the Corstorphine/Murrayfield ward: parents whose children have moved away, who are sitting with empty bedrooms. Many are now struggling with inflation. Pete will push for the Council to work with colleges to set up a service to introduce students to homeowners who could rent them lodgings. This would relieve the incentive for developers to put up more student accommodation blocks- and encourage resources to go into building more suitable homes for young families, private renters, shared equity schemes, etc.

Recently completed Westfield student flats- and more are planned for the old Tynecastle High School site: they cost a mint to live in and mean less land for family homes

HOMESHARE IN EDINBURGH

We don’t have Homeshare in Edinburgh- but we should. Homeshare providers match people seeking cheaper rent with an older person in need of help with household chores or some company. Homeowners provide a bedroom in exchange for companionship and support- for example, with cooking and shopping and the reassurance of having another person living in the property. In return for around 10 hours of help a week, the sharer gets a discounted rent. (NOTE- the scheme is not a substitute for personal care.)

There are many elderly people in the ward that might appreciate a homesharer. It is cheaper for the homeowner too- they would face care costs of £20/hr to get this kind of help. The Homeshare scheme would be perfect for the Corstorphine/Murrayfield ward; whilst it is popular all over England, there is no Homeshare scheme in Scotland. If the Council can’t be persuaded to support the scheme, Pete will find a Third Sector provider to take it on.

HOW IT WORKS: To benefit from this social franchise scheme, the Council would pay £5,000 as a one-off payment plus 7% of the turnover they bring in from operating it; in return, Homeshare provides all the advice and guidance the Council would need. The Council would need to assign a worker to collect requests from householders and would-be homesharers. The sharer’s PVG criminal record checks would be voluntary and so free.

Both the householders and matched homesharer have to pay to be in the scheme- this essentially constitutes “rent”. The householder might pay £50pcm and the sharer £200pcm- this money would go to the Council- even if only 12 matches were made, this would soon cover the costs of the Council worker’s wages. The idea is for the scheme to be cost-neutral to the public purse. Every six weeks, the Council Homeshare officer would pay the matched twosome a visit and check all was well.

Pete has spoken to the Homeshare development co-ordinator and believes Homeshare in Edinburgh would be a great help for vulnerable citizens who have a home and space to spare.

As one homesharer in London said “The most valuable thing about the scheme is that me and the lady I share with have developed a genuine friendship, and whether or not I stay on with the homeshare, I’ll still keep in touch with her because I really enjoy spending time with her.”

COUNCIL HOUSING- You can find out how Pete would like to see Council housing developed- see his post at Rescuing Municipal Socialism – Tenant Managed Housing Co-Operatives

CURBS ON MANDARINS

Edinburgh has highest number of council employees on over £100,000 in Scotland Our Chief Executive gets more than the First Minister– and she runs a country! Pete will campaign to reduce the number of Council corporate managers on £100k+ who are on jobs for life and would put them on 3-year performance-related contracts.

PETE’S BACKGROUND

Working Effectively with Council Officers: After 40 years in the voluntary sector and the Council, Pete has an excellent record in dealing with officers, whether that be to organise events, sort out permissions or get problems sorted – through a deep knowledge of its resources and procedures

Pete has been an active member of Murrayfield Community Council since 2016. He recently wrote a guide to its plaques – see it at www.tinyurl.com/murrayfieldplaques He has organised numerous fun days and community consultations in the Roseburn area. After raising 6,000 signatures against the CCWEL, in 2016 he led the “Roseburn Vision” initiative which proposed an alternative scheme, following a crowd-funded consultation he’d run with traders and 260 local residents- which the Council completely ignored. (see http://www.kidsnotsuits.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/The-Roseburn-Vision.pdf ) This and his many other local campaigns are featured on this www.kidsnotsuits.com website (see Old Campaigns tab).

The NHS in Scotland for years had hopeless whistleblowing arrangements which meant staff that saw dangerous practices were being bullied out of their jobs. Even the Queen’s surgeon got fired! Pete lodged a parliamentary petition in 2016 calling for a whistleblower hotline similar to what was in place at Edinburgh Council. The initiative won cross-party support from the Lothian MSPs who signed it. His campaign helped strengthen measures for whistleblowing support- the Scottish NHS has now gone some way towards addressing the problem, with the creation of the Independent National Whistleblowing Officer position (see https://inwo.spso.org.uk/ ) within the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s office. More here

Whilst still at the Council, in his spare time, Pete was part of the campaign to “Save the Brae” – see Castlebrae High School has been saved – Kids Not Suits.com– activity he did in his own time, which he believes contributed to his dismissal.

Prior to working at Edinburgh Council as a Project Manager in Regeneration, Pete set up and ran Young People Speak Out, a youth work project. (see an Annual Report here). Before that he was self-employed making videos for charities and commerce; he started his career at the BBC. He has a degree in Biochemistry and postgrad degrees in IT and community work.

Pete has long been a campaigner for free speech. This has led to his being attacked for his criticisms of Israel. His activism led to his being expelled from the GMB union on bogus antisemitism charges under the IHRA Definition, even though he was defended by Rabbi Cohen- see the film at www.tinyurl.com/gmbihra .

Rabbi Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta International- Jews Against Zionism has described Pete as a campaigner who “has tremendous respect for Jews and Judaism, while maintaining his moral position of sympathizing with the oppressed people of Palestine.” Pete is chairperson of the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association and One Democratic Palestine. On August 30th 2022 the Council Policy Committee discussed his petition to see Edinburgh Twinned with Gaza. They had been convinced by the Chief Executive in autumn 2019, not long after Pete lodged his petition in the spring, to cease all twinning activity. Nevertheless on the 30th August 2022, Pete convinced Edinburgh Council to Explore Support for Gaza – Twin Edinburgh with Gaza (twingaza.com)

Pete will leave his NHS job if elected, the better to devote his energies to Corstorphine/Murrayfield matters.

DONATE or VOLUNTEER to help get Pete Elected

HELP PAY PETE’s ELECTION COSTS? Because Pete is standing as an independent, he has no political party to pay his printing costs. Help him pay the £1,000 it will cost to get 10,000 flyers and some posters printed: to donate, go to Help get Pete Gregson elected as Corstorphine/Murrayfield Cllr | Chuffed | Non-profit charity and social enterprise fundraising

GOT A COUPLE OF HOURS SPARE? VOLUNTEER TO DELIVER FLYERS? Pete needs 20 volunteers to help him get his flyer into every home in the ward. Can you help him out? If do, please email him at peter.n.gregson@outlook.com