Letter in Evening News Fri 24 Aug 07

For 35 generations (some 700 years) the residents of every burgh have been the owners of valuable assets which are the ongoing responsibility to administer by successive elected councillors, Scotland-wide.

The legal term is "The Common Good Assets", which have received the recent attention of the Scottish Executive (March 2007) - which has sent a written reminder to every council's chief executive that:

Common Good Funds are properly recorded with accurate records, with Common Good accounts shown separately; accurate asset registers which identify common good assets as such distinct from the general body of assets under council control; assets are properly insured .

Edinburgh has received a vast amount of common good assets including Calton Hill, Bruntsfield Links, the Meadows, Princes Street Gardens, many monuments, and so on, which must be kept specifically as Common Good Assets for the benefit of future generations.

Every elected Edinburgh councillor, as a trustee of the burgh's common good, has a duty to preserve this inheritance, regardless of party affiliations. Only after extensive and detailed consultations with the "stakeholders" (the citizens) which means community councils and cultural bodies among others, should any councillor dare to vote away the people's inheritance.

M E Mackenzie, Springhill Road, Peebles

This article: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=1346222007