I know this may sound cynical but it has to be said. I have just read the article in STV Local about the Gorgeous Gorgie clean up. It is difficult to sit still for this. It is a thinly veiled attempt by the SNP/ Lib Dem Administration in the Council to make up for the damage they have done to Gorgie Dalry over the last four and a half years! Having pulled the funding on the much loved Gorgie Dalry Gazette, the Gorgie Dalry Partnership and the Gorgie Dalry Business Association they then have the cheek to turn around and appoint a 'Town Centre Coordinator' who recommends that we create, guess what (!), a community newspaper, a shop front (the Partnership) and a business directory (the Business Association). All good ideas and all of which we had till the present administration scrapped them because they thought they were a waste of money! I will contribute positively to anything that helps the area but I will not forget that it was the likes of the local SNP Councillor as Deputy Head of Finance who seconded the demise of these organisations that the area so desperately needed. Labour Councillors were derided at the time for campaigning to save these organisations, claiming we were 'scaremongering'. SNP leader Steve Cardownie repeatedly does a comedy act in the Full Council imitating the animals in the Gorgie City Farm, worried about having their funding cut. Just for the record - the petition we gathered names on was for the organisations in Gorgie including the Gorgie Dalry Partnership (not the Farm) and these were actually shut so far from scaremongering the petition was accurate. Also just for the record the SNP local Councillor was a Director of the Gorgie Dalry Partnership and actually helped write the application for funding which he then seconded refusing (?) causing the local charity to go into receivership.
The biggest irony of all is that the new SNP MSP Marco Biaggi is now calling for a community newspaper for Gorgie Dalry. He is right of course and we had a really good one - the Gazette. It was his SNP colleagues especially the Sighthill Gorgie Deputy Head a of Finance that got rid of it.
Don't get me wrong the new 'Town Centre Coordinator' is very energetic and I agree with all of her ideas but there is no money behind it and although I will help in any way I can, I do believe we are trying to recreate things we already had back in the days when Gorgie Dalry had money spent on it.
