Tuesday 29 December 2009

Labour Councillors To Oppose Edinburgh Leisure Budget Cut

Terrific news for the crèche campaign - the Labour group in the Council are proposing a new budget for Edinburgh Leisure which would include enough money to continue providing crèches.

You can read the news article about it here.

With a proposal like this on the table, we'd like to remind you to please get in touch with your local SNP and / or Lib Dem councillors to ask them to support moves to keep the crèches open. You can see details of who they are in the previous post.

Thanks!

Wednesday 23 December 2009

Merry Christmas to All - But Before You Put Your Feet Up...

A wee update before everyone breaks for Christmas and New Year.

The Council Motion (which you can see if you click the link) was very good news.

However in reality, it means nothing unless the Councillors remember their support when they put forward their budget in 2010.

In case that budget commitment doesn’t happen, we also need to keep:

  • progressing discussions with Edinburgh Leisure themselves (they have now offered User Group meetings in the New Year)
  • petitioning our own Councillors – and those whose wards include the creches – to keep them aware of the need for these vital services.

So please have a good break but also:

1. Get in touch (via link to right) AND confirm which crèche you use most often (for the User Group meetings)

2. contact your own Councillors again and - especially – contact those listed below because SNP/LDP have overall Council control :

Ainslie Park (Forth ward)

  • Steve Cardownie (SNP)
  • Elaine Morris (LDP)

Drumbrae

  • Colin Keir (SNP)
  • Robert Aldridge (LDP)

Gracemount

  • Tom Buchanan (SNP)
  • Conor Snowden (LDP)

Portobello

  • Michael Bridgman (SNP)
  • Stephen Hawkins (LDP)

Seasons Greetings and thanks for your continued support!

GPs Support Crèche Campaign

We've got support from GPs in our campaign to keep Edinburgh Leisure's crèches open!

Chair of the Royal College of GPs Scotland, Dr. Ken Lawton, said:

"Access to affordable methods of maintaining and improving health and wellbeing are vital. This is important to all groups in the community, including families, and reasonable support is key to enabling their use of these services. Closure of all crèches is likely to have a very negative impact on this group."

Friday 18 December 2009

Front Page News as Councillors Approve Motion


The demonstrators at the City Chambers yesterday made front page news in the Edinburgh Evening News. The good news for our campaign is that councillors unanimously passed a motion which allows us and Edinburgh Leisure to continue to look for alternatives to closure. More details in the New Year - there's lots of work to be done and we're going to need everyone's support!

Thursday 17 December 2009

A Massive Thank You To All Demonstrators


A huge thank you to everyone who turned out this morning to the demonstration at the City Chambers on a truly hideous day. Press coverage of the day is starting to come in, and you can see the stv report here.
 
After the demonstration, a smaller group of protesters and accompanying babies and toddlers moved into the City Chambers to make a deputation to the full council. Shairron, Claire and Gillian made a terrific job of speaking and handling questions from the councillors - many thanks to them. We don't yet know the outcome of the motion raised on our behalf as latest reports are that the Council are still debating the previous schools closure motion.
 
News we were given today by Councillor Deirdre Brock is that Edinburgh Leisure has approached over 100 childcare providers with a view to putting alternative provision in place, and has scheduled meetings this week and next with some interested parties. Edinburgh Leisure are also hoping to meet with crèche user groups in the New Year to discuss the provision, so we'll keep you posted on what happens on that front!
 
Thanks again, and hope you've all thawed out.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Please Come To The Demo Tomorrow

Don't forget the demo tomorrow (17 December), outside the City Chambers on the High Street, from 0930 to 1030. Please bring children, costumes, face paints, banners, all the petitions you've had signed and good voices...

Monday 14 December 2009

... And In Porty Too!




There was also a terrific turnout at Portobello Swim Centre - many thanks to all who came, and who played, sang and danced. The support from passers by was terrific - petitions were taken down to the bowling centre and to local builders, proving that the crèches aren't just important to parents, carers and children.

Gracemount Demo Shows Great Support




Thanks to everyone who came along to the demo at Gracemount on Friday 11 December. Take a look at the pictures - we even had support from Nigel Griffiths MP, and Norma Hart, the local Labour councillor.

Crèche Campaign - Motion to be Put to Full Council Meeting

Labour and Conservative councillors have joined forces to put forward a motion to the City of Edinburgh full Council meeting on Thursday, which will make councillors discuss the issue of crèche closures. For more detail, see the Edinburgh Evening News.

Friday 11 December 2009

Demo at Ainslie Park


Here's a photo of everyone who came to the demo at Ainslie Park. Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, was there to offer his support, together with everyone else who was there - thanks to everyone who came!

Thursday 10 December 2009

Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament

Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, has sponsored an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament in support of the campaign to keep Edinburgh's creches open.

You can see it here.

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Please ask your councillor to act

We're asking councillors to raise a motion 'We believe Edinburgh Leisure should be funded to retain its Creche service' which we hope will be debated and voted on by the full council at its meeting on 17th Dec. We are confident we have the support of the Labour group, Greens and Tories which means we only need to convert one or two of the snp/lib dem coalition to vote for this and the creches would be saved! At least one of them has already voiced their concern about the creches closing but we have to keep the pressure on each and every councillor to vote with us if we're to save our creches. Please call your councillors if you can and ask for their personal vote rather than let them refer you onto a.n.other.

You can find your local councillors through this link.

Monday 7 December 2009

Don't Forget The Local Demos!

Please come and join us at any/all of our series of local demos this week before the mass demo next Thursday 17th Dec (09.30-10.30am outside City Chambers on High Street). Bring children too and any eyecatching fancy dress (Lazy Town Edinburgh? is our theme), face painting, banners etc.

Thursday 10th December - 10.45-11.45am outside Ainslie Park Leisure Centre, 92 Pilton Drive, Edinburgh EH5 2HF

Friday 11th December - 10.30-11am outside Portobello Swim Centre, 57 The Promenade, Edinburgh EH15 2BS

Friday 11th December - 10.15-11.15am outside Gracemount Leisure Centre 22 Gracemount Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 6RN

Thursday 3 December 2009

Campaign Relaunch Gets More Coverage

The relaunch of the Save Our Creches campaign has had more coverage today. Please check out the BBC News website and the Edinburgh Evening News.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Next Week Local Demos At Ainslie Park And Portobello

We're staging a couple of mini demos next week

- outside Ainslie Park between 10.30 and 11.30 on Thursday 10th Dec, and
- outside Portobello Swim centre at 10.30 on Friday 11th Dec.

Others may follow at Gracemount and Drumbrae - just let us know what you're planning there and we'll spread the word. Come and join us at any of the demos if you can - and most important of all, remember our demo outside the City Chambers on the Royal Mile Thursday 17th Dec 09.30 to 10.30.

Save Our Crèche Campaign - STV Coverage 2 December

Following on from the campaign's first press release, the media has started to take interest in what we're doing. See interviews from Ainslie Park users and Edinburgh Leisure on the STV website.

(You can find the piece about 2 minutes and 50 seconds in).

Keep up the good work, and please use the email address to let us know of any other coverage you see.

Quality Childcare - Worth fighting For