Thank you to everyone for supporting this petition which is about to hit a remarkable 15,000 signatures!

Let's remember this section: “Edinburgh Council plans to use a fast-tracked “consultation” this spring, to make these schemes permanent. We have no confidence in this approach.”

Sadly, this prediction came true, with the council launching a rushed Spaces for People consultation, with no notice of the launch date, that did not meet the Quality Standards of the council’s own Consultation Policy that was approved last week.

This policy formalised what the council claims to have been doing anyway, so there was no excuse for the consultation not meeting the standards, especially as it related to 120 Spaces for People schemes in every ward of the city, potentially impacting the lives of every citizen.

Participants reported many many problems, including errors, confusing information, biased questions, misleading statements and huge pressure to complete the survey within six weeks during lockdown.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TODAY!

A motion about Public Confidence in relation to this flawed consultation is being made by Cllr Webber at this Thursday’s full council meeting (10am Thurs 29 April) as agenda item 8.5.

You can see the motion here under point 8.5 

Please contact ALL your local councillors from ALL political parties asking them to put aside party differences and vote to support this motion. (Thanks to member group SWEM for providing these steps)

STEP 1 - Find out what ward you are in if you don’t know already. Go here and enter your address at the top of the screen:

STEP 2 - Identify who your local councillors are from all parties. 

STEP 3 - Find their email addresses - they are listed in alphabetical order by surname here

STEP 4 - Write a short email to them before 5pm Wednesday 28 April.

Use your own words and make it personal to your circumstances and your area. Here are some points to give you a start:

• Ask councillors to put aside party political differences on this occasion to vote for the motion on Public Confidence under agenda item 8.5
• The recent consultation on retaining Spaces for People impacting all wards across the city and voters of all political parties, did not meet minimum Quality Standards in the Consultation Policy around being genuine, informative and inclusive (use your own examples of how and why it was difficult or confusing to fill in or was misleading). For reference, here is the link to the Consultation Policy
• This consultation therefore cannot provide proper data and will lead to flawed decision making - especially if requesting funding for active travel projects from the Scottish Government
• It could seriously undermine public confidence in the whole council and reduce future levels of public engagement with any council consultations
• Active travel is important to the future of Edinburgh and it is important to run a high quality consultation to gain public support for this

Remember the deadline of 5pm tomorrow - Wednesday 28 April

And lastly, please continue to share this petition. It’s more important than ever to build awareness of these issues.

Thank you again for your support