City Businesses Unite To Urge Council To Press Ahead On George Street Plans

Essential Edinburgh has been engaging with the City of Edinburgh Council for many years over the public realm improvements on George Street.

Many of you, especially those businesses on George Street, have equally engaged with different consultants and planners over the last decade of discussion. Earlier this year, Councillors agreed to look at the wider city centre public realm as a combined project, with Princes Street combined with George Street. Visitor levy funds have been allocated to deliver these two key pieces of work.

As part of our engagement, our Chair Denzil Skinner has co-signed a letter along with the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and the George Street Association urging the Councillors to agree to deliver the George Street plan as a matter of urgency.

On the 12th of November, the Transport and Environment Committee will debate a paper recommending that work on both George Street and Princes Street starts as soon as possible, with an allocation of just over £30M of visitor levy funds. The George Street plan has been amended from the most recent one, making savings to meet the budget allocation of circa £20M for George Street.

Irrespective of the plan not being what was previously agreed, we have taken a pragmatic approach and support the officers recommendation. There has been too much time, effort and money spent on this project for it to have further delays. The city needs to move forward and deliver the George Street public realm works. The link to the full paper can be found here.

The operating plan for the street will be experimental, meaning that changes can be made if it does not work for businesses. We will, of course, consult with you all ahead of the works starting, as we are still not aware of the phasing of works, or the length of time it will take to deliver each block. As soon as we know more information, as well as the decision of the meeting, we will communicate with you all.

Denzil Skinner, Chair of Essential Edinburgh said: “I am delighted that the Visitor Levy funds enable the upgrading of the New Town public realm to come to fruition after years of consultation. This is an exciting moment, and I would encourage elected members to support the proposals.”

Download Open Letter
Download Press Release
View Transport and Environment Committee Papers