Edinburgh Sucks! | Dick Dastardly shouts from the sidelines

City Council

Dick Dastardly shouts from the sidelines

By The Basa ⋅ June 11, 2007 ⋅

Trevor ‘Dick Dastardly’ Davies, the former planning leader, dismally unsuccessful candidate for council leadership and failed-at-the-ballot-box ex-councillor has not shut up just because his electorate have told him to go away.

Speaking to Johns Hopkins University Fellows meeting in Edinburgh yesterday he wen’t on to describe the ills he sees facing the City of Edinburgh.

He’s not to happy with the current make-up of the city’s council:

Coalitions and minority governments are not suited to long-term, difficult strategic decisions. Or any decisions at all.

So maybe he forgot that Labour have been running the country in a coalition for the last 7 years and of courseÂ his own colleagues (including himself if the electorate hadn’tÂ given him the famous finger) would have been sitting in a coalition with the LibDems if they (and he) had gotten their own way.

Milking your capital city for short-term financial survival is rarely a wise move.

He obviously doesn’t read the local press.Â It seems that the majority of Edinburgh thinks that during his administration brown envelopes were passing in abundance in return for planning approval and you have only to read the comments on any story on planning in either The Hootsman or the Evening Rag to have this statement confirmed.

The tram is fundamental to the future prosperity of Edinburgh, and, therefore, to the country’s prosperity, too. Edinburgh’s Waterfront, with 30,000 jobs and a tax revenue of over Â£500 million a year once complete, simply can’t develop without it, while the renewal of the St James area and Princes Street in the city centre probably won’t go ahead without it.

The above quote is factually incorrect.Â It is not expected that the Waterfront will be completed for quite a number of years.Â How can he really look ahead to figure out the tax revenue without even knowing who the people who are to be paying the taxes.Â Each company/person have extremely individual tax responsibilities and these can’t be correctly worked out until you know who those people/companies are.Â With regard to the St. James area and Princes Street – the fact is that if those need to be done, there is a politicial need for it to happen then it will happen no matter who is in power.

This is just another former member of the Edinburgh administration throwing his toys out of the pram.Â Sour grapes.Â He should present himself to the electorate in 4 years and make the same statements – let’s see how many of them stick.

More Info:Â Future prosperity at stake as Edinburgh reaches a crossroads (subscription required)