Local campaigners from Leith and east Edinburgh will meet to discuss Council privatisation of certain public services, writes campaigner Alyson Macdonald.
The public event – to which councillors and a speaker from Unison have been invited – is scheduled for 7pm on Tuesday13 December at Meadowbank Arts Complex (see map below). All are welcome to attend.
The discussion comes in advance of a Council decision on 19 January 2012 about the future of Integrated Facilities Management and Corporate Transactional Services. This will affect services such as building maintenance, cleaning, school meals, security services, housing benefit payments and Council Tax collection.
The meeting has been organised by and Greater Leith Against the Cuts and Save Our Services East Edinburgh, two grassroots campaign groups which have started in response to the Council's proposals to privatise services though the Alternative Business Models Programme.
Both groups believe that it is not in the city's interests to privatise services, and that the Council have not done enough to inform local residents about the plans, or undertaken suitable consultation.
[Readers with similar, different or contrary opinions are welcome to express them in the Spurtle.]
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