Contributed article
May 14th 2014 will be a day to remember as the City of Edinburgh Council donned their black hats and voted 8-5 to banish Kyloe Cow from his West End window.
The council said that the cow figure has a “detrimental effect on the character of the listed building” and would not want to “set a precedent for others to follow ” so the cow must be removed.
In December 2013 The City of Edinburgh Council issued a letter to Kyloe Restaurant and Grill requesting the removal of their iconic cow sculpture within 21 days. This letter was the beginning of a campaign which saw over 3,000 people signing a petition to “Save the Kyloe Cow!” and the relevant paperwork submitted to the council. The Cockburn Association also offered no objection to the cow nor did the West End Association. The new west end map and artwork prominently features the Kyloe cow on all branded materials so these will now have to be remade with that icon removed.
However at the meeting today, the Development Management Sub-Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council rejected these applications and decided the cow must be removed.
Nic Wood, Director, Signature Pub Group commented, ’’We are disappointed to learn of the City of Edinburgh Council’s very negative decision to refuse permission for the Kyloe cow to stay positioned from our restaurant. We respect their decision but will obviously move to appeal as is part of the council’s planning process. Who would have thought a fibreglass cow could prove to be so controversial?
It is worth pointing out at this time that the City of Edinburgh Council had no interest in listening to us as we begged for support when our business was effectively cut off from the city during the painful tram works crippling the whole of the West End. We had no choice but to put up with their imposed restrictions and erected the cow to tell customers “we are here – find us through the maze of railings. We are lucky to have survived, it is such a shame that the Kyloe cow has not.”
A regular at the restaurant added “It will be a sad day so see the old cow slip away from sight forever”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
