THE chief executive of the City of Edinburgh Council earns £160,140 ?? some £20,000 more than the country??s First Minister ?? and last year she was honoured as Chief Executive of the the Year.

THE chief executive of the City of Edinburgh Council earns £160,140 ?? some £20,000 more than the country??s First Minister ?? and last year she was honoured as Chief Executive of the the Year. So the buck, presumably, stops on Sue Bruce??s desk. Everyone has known for years that we live in austere times in UK public life, so has a senior official previously lauded for her work in Aberdeen and East Dunbartonshire lost the plot?

The capital has been traumatised by the trams project, which has driven an enormous wedge between the burghers and the burgh, destroying political trust for a generation. Even the sight of the slick machines gliding through the city centre has not diminished that, as so few residents live and work along the route. Extension of the line might even have been popular had the initial project not been such a debacle, but the capital is frozen, admiring the system but unwilling to trust an expanded project.

The damage has gone deeper in a city where the other debacle of the Scottish Parliament building project at Holyrood has sapped public trust, even if that was not the council??s fault, and the impact of the financial sector crisis has had a profound impact on both the city??s sense of itself and the economy and employment prospects of the capital.

Cities such as Glasgow and Dundee which see themselves as gallus survivors flourishing from the ashes can take heart, while Edinburgh has had its understated self-esteem pierced. All local authorities are are going to have to live with the new realities ?? whether that be the continuing specifics of the council tax freeze in Scotland, or the broader calamity of a UK Chancellor happy to take UK public spending back to the levels of the 1930s.

Edinburgh should have been uniquely well-placed to weather that storm, but the combination of the trams debacle and the scandal over corruption in the council??s home improvement system has sapped that. A tidal wave of debt is now set to engulf the city, according to the Accounts Commission, who say the need for savings is about to rise from £107 million to £138 million.

The capital has an image as a comfortable, middle-class enclave. Try telling that to its citizens in Pilton, Craigmillar or Wester Hailes. Last month there was a much under-reported riot in Drylaw when the police station came under a US-style attack and vehicles were burned out. Shutting sports centres such as the iconic Jack Kane Centre which teem with young men playing five-asides is hardly calculated to help.

It is said Ms Bruce will unveil a purge of bureaucrats today, with job losses in management and not front-line services. They always say that, but if teachers, social workers and local staff on the ground end up bearing the brunt the judgment of the electorate will be harsh.

It is to the credit of Scottish Ministers that the compact of no compulsory redundancies in the public sector in exchange for pay restraint has largely held.

But we are entering new territory in public life when a Chancellor is happy to talk about levels of public spending dropping to that of 80 years ago. Should that happen it will not just be Edinburgh staring over the abyss, but communities across Scotland.