Gorgie Dalry Community Council

Elections for the MSPs to be appointed to the Scottish Parliament took place on Thursday 6th of May. The online Election Hustings event, took place on Friday 23rd of April at 7:30pm. This event covered two constituencies, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Central. Rev John Conway moderated the event and ensured an even-handed treatment between the candidates.

The five main political parties competing in this election in these two constituencies were invited to put forward a candidate for this event. The parties who attended were the Scottish National Party, Scottish Conservative and Unionist, Scottish Labour, Scottish Greens and Scottish Liberal Democrats.

This event was an opportunity for residents to hear candidates outline their policies and to answer questions from residents. We had list of questions from residents prior to the event but also took several questions from the audence during the event.

Organised jointly by: Gorgie Dalry Community Council, Merchiston Community Council, St Michaels’s Parish Church and Gorgie Dalry Stenhouse Church

Clips from the hustings

Opening Statements

Question 1: “As the housing crisis escalates with houses prices only increasing and large amounts of student accommodation are built locally. What support would the candedates offer to assist the development of an appropriate balance of affordable housing, Cohousing Groups and accessible housing for the disabled.”

Question 2: “Global warming is threatening our world. What do you plan to do to halt climate change, change the way we live and use up the world’s resources?”

Question 3: “How committed is the candidate to ensuring that Edinburgh Council has the necessary powers to regulate short term lets in the city to ensure that the city centre is not given over entirely for tourism.”

Question 4: “The denial of designated visitors to care home residents has been a tradgedy and many residents have died in the last year without seeing their loved ones, with their deterioriation accelerated by feeling abandoned. What would you do to support increased visiting?”

Question 5: “Scottish Education aspires to be world leading, what needs to change to improve the education system across Scotland?”

Question 6: “Stronger community councils would require greater devolution of authority and resources from Scottish Government & from local authorities. Do you intend to devolve power down to strengthen the role & voice of community councils and make sure they are listened to?”

Question 7: “How will you help prevent and reduce the health and social harm caused (for individuals, families, communities, and Scotland as whole) by alcohol and drugs?”

Question 8 (Closing): “What do you think are the most positive aspects of living in Edinburgh Central & Southern – and how will you and your party work to make sure this continues?”

Rules for questions:

• Please ask only one question.
• Please choose a question that will be applicable for all candidates.
• Please note that we may combine people’s questions, as we want to ask the most popular questions we receive; there is no guarantee that your question will be asked in your specific words.
• There is no guarantee that your question will be used. This will depend on the volume of questions submitted.
• Please keep your question civil and polite, any abusive questions will be ignored.
• Please don’t name a specific candidate or party in your question.
• There will be no questions about a candidate’s protected characteristics; these are age, race, nationality, gender, disability, sex, religion/belief and sexual orientation.
• We will try to strike a balance between Edinburgh Southern and Central focused questions.
• By submitting a question, you consent to having this question made public during the event and afterwards as part of a wider list of questions.
• If you consent to having your name associated with your question, it may be mentioned during the event. If you do not complete this part of the form (below), your null response will be treated as not giving consent.