News
Introduction of Neighbourhood Partnerships
Thursday, 19 April 2007
A major shake-up of Council services will take place from May onwards, with many activities being devolved to smaller groupings, called Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs). Twelve are being established in Edinburgh, with the Murrayfield area being in the Drumbrae/Gyle/Corstorphine/Murrayfield Neighbourhood Partnership (it is hoped the new NP will choose a more concise name at an early meeting). The NP managing board will be composed of a core of local councillors, public agencies (e.g. Police, NHS Lothian and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian), community representatives and the voluntary sector. There will be equal numbers of elected members and of community representatives. Other bodies (business, further education or other instiutions with a key interest in the area) may be members but not have voting rights. Murrayfield Community Council will have one representative on this Partnership – to be nominated at the Community Council AGM on 15 May. It is intended that the Partnerships will generally operate on a consensual basis, with formal voting being the exception.
“Services for Communities” (SfC), a new department of the Council that includes all Housing and Environmental and Consumer Services, has the lead role on behalf of the Council to develop Neighbourhood Partnerships. Each NP will be supported by a Neighbourhood Manager from SfC. He will directly manage SfC services across the area and will be required to cover one, two or three Neighbourhood Partnerships and will work closely with other services and partners (e.g. Children & Families, Health & Social Care, Police, etc.) Initially he will manage staff in housing services, community safety, local community planning, task force, parks, local roads services, anti-social behaviour, community libraries and customer service. The aim is to make these services more responsive to local needs. We await with interest to see how this evolves.