Edinburgh Sucks! | Miss, Miss! The leader is late!

Ewan Aitken

Miss, Miss! The leader is late!

By The Basa ⋅ October 11, 2006 ⋅

Finally, in an obvious about face, the council NuLeader Ewan Aitken has decided that the Edinburgh will finally join Fife and East Lothian Councils to go for legal action to stop the nonsensical ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Forth.

Just last week the ruling Labour council hadn’t decided whether it was good nor bad. A source in the council has informed EdinburghSucks.com that the reason for being hesitant is that they are in bed too much with the Forth Ports Authority on the dodgy Waterfront fiasco which is dependent on the Tram. Interestingly as well as being the regulatory body for the Forth readers should be very concerend that Forth Ports Authority have the final say over a scheme which will make them a lot of money if it is given the go-ahead - current figures say they will received around six million pounds annually.

RSPB Scotland, the WWF, Friends of the Earth and of course the Green Party have been warning of a potential ecological disaster if the plans go ahead but until a blustering comment to the Evening News, our NuLeader has kept silent. In fact his colleague, the former Housing supremo (who failed to deliver for the Council on what to do with the housing stock) who is now rather grandly called the community safety leader, Sheila Gilmore, was trotted out to the press just a month ago to give the following statement:

“It is not our intention to participate in a legal challenge at this moment in time because we do not believe it will succeed.”

Back on the 4th September this year rhw Firth of Forth was identified by WWF (formerly World Wildlife Foundation) as Scotland’s key battleground between industry, leisure and wildlife and there was not a peep out of Edinburgh’s council.

So now, at this late stage our NuLeader who is obviously a flip-flopper wants to have an audience with the meenistar, Ross Finnie. He even had the audacity to say “Our position on this is clear” - yep, so clear you had to have a debate yesterday to decide what you’re position actually was!

It’s a pity he won’t flip-flop on the ELLP/City Connect or indeed the Waterfront fiascos and help put the people responsible were they truly belong, behind bars.

More Info: Aitken wants Finnie talks on oil transfers and http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1098