WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? The City of Edinburgh Council has achieved a rare feat in civic mismanagement: after spending a decade on endless consultations it now proposes a cut-price, soulless redesign of George Street.
Today, 12 November, the council’s Transport Committee will likely agree a highly controversial “reduced design”, cutting down the previous “ambitious” version and its £35m budget – but still costing local taxpayers a whopping £20m.
The cost cutting axes the proposed trees (thank goodness – Ed.) and our historic natural stone setts will be torn up and replaced by cheap asphalt (ironically requiring crude oil byproducts to manufacture, but don’t tell the Greens!).
As a result, the grand architectural statement of our 18th century forebears will be converted into a monotonous, tarmac highway.
This entire project is an ideological obsession masquerading as urban improvement – in the heart of Edinburgh’s coveted UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite claims that this is a “pedestrianisation” its core is a giant cycle superhighway. By prioritising active-travel fundamentalism over pragmatic economic reality, the council will alienate the very people who keep the city centre alive.
One of the proposed designs for George Street showing the asphalt cycle runway. (C) City of Edinburgh Council.
Locals with mobility issues, shoppers relying on vehicular access, and businesses requiring seamless deliveries are treated as an inconvenient afterthought. Narrow, anti-business service windows are proposed for delivery vehicles and tourist coaches dropping off at hotels. This will asphyxiate our premium retail and hospitality sectors when they already have serious challenges from higher local and national taxes as well as above inflation minimum wage rises to fund.
The recent, crippling fire on Princes Street proved that George Street is vital for vehicular movement in the city centre. It provided the resilience for our bus based public transport and this plan removes the city’s alternative route insurance policy.
I suppose that doesn’t matter for ideologically minded councillors who believe our buses should go “to, not through” the city centre – turning around at Haymarket or Picardy Place. For them this plan is the start of banning motor traffic – including buses – from the city centre.
Worse still are the financials. The council plans to use the “tourist tax” to pay for this mess instead of using it for long neglected basics like road maintenance, cleaning our filthy streets, fixing the potholes, or repaving Princes Street.
Edinburgh Council is already struggling under a huge debt mountain – the fourth highest of any UK Council! But this crazy plan removes all the parking bays with a loss of income of over £3 million a year.
We need to stop borrowing from our children and return to common-sense governance. Keep the income and repair our existing but crumbling public realm.
George Street needs investment, but it needs an eye on commerce, heritage, and accessibility – not an asphalt monument to anti-car dogma. Having dropped the unaffordable vision, the Council must drop this pound shop version too.
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Photo of George Street, Edinburgh, by Richie Chan via Adobe Stock
