The plans to reorganise George Street are progressing, albeit slowly, and years after first planned, but according to latest estimates the project will be cheaper than thought.
The cost estimate for the full project now that the technical design phase has been completed, have reduced from £39.45 million to £35.07 million. The cost of simply maintaining George Street in its current state was estimated at £10.3 million – which could not be paid for from any external funding. Although the council has yet to identify where the money will come from to pay for the major public realm project, officers are keen to move forward with the plans for this major public realm project first mooted several years ago.
The next steps will be to obtain the legal orders to introduce pedestrianisation of some of the space, with a central cycle lane and raised planters and seats.
Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) measures – shown as bollards in the drawings – will be introduced at every junction. HVM will also provide a control measure to restrict non-essential vehicles between the hours of 10.30am and 7pm (Monday to Saturday), and between 12.30pm and 7pm on Sundays.
Although final details have yet to be agreed, the Transport Convener, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, said he is hoping to start work on the three year project in autumn 2027. It was in 2014 that the council ran trials on George Street, removing parking and creating some pedestrian areas in a trial run. The scheme as now envisaged will remove 192 car parking spaces from Pay and Display. The loss of parking on George Street will reduce the city’s parking revenue by around £3.25 million.
But according to the convener “the council tax payers of Edinburgh won’t directly be funding the development of George Street”. Instead he confirmed that all funding will be sourced externally – which means from The Scottish Government. He is keen to stress the importance of the project and said: “It’s a unique kind of opportunity to do something quite forward thinking, quite modern and progressive in the centre of a World Heritage Site, in what I would argue is one of the most important streets, not only in Edinburgh, but in Scotland.”
There are possibilities of saving millions from the project by resurfacing the road in tarmac rather than using setts, but this would in Cllr Jenkinson’s view mean more work would be required “further down the line”. He is however hopeful that the cost may decrease even further as a result of high estimates from unitility companies. He said: “A lot of the cost, as you can imagine, is diverting utilities, gas, power, water, all these kind of things. So as we go through the process and start much more detailed conversations with utility companies, I certainly think that the the costings of the project are more likely to decrease than increase, because as we go through the process, we’ll have more more accurate figures.”
There is also a possibility that some of the Tourist Tax might help fund the project. This will become operational for stays from 24 July 2026 onwards. The convener said: “Each of the executive committees will decide how they’re going to distribute the money that they’re expected to receive as a benefit from the Transient Visitor Levy (TVL). But I think it’s been the framework that’s in place for TVL does clearly articulate that investment in public realm is within scope, and therefore I do think that a project such as George Street is a very good candidate for a proportion of the TVL money that would fall within the remit of my committee.”
The report to be considered by councillors at their meeting on 26 June can now be found online here.
It is proposed that the George Street and First New Town project (GNT) will turn George Street into a “people focused space” where it is easier to walk, wheel and cycle. One of the key parts will be to restrict all but essential vehicles from George Street for most of the day.
The stone used throughout will be natural stone – yorkstone slabs on pavements and setts on the central parking areas with whinstone kerbs and setts on the area currently used as a road. The proposal is to create areas for people to sit where seating and raised planters will create places to spend time.
As to cross streets, there will be no work done on North Hanover Street, Frederick and North Castle Street in this financial year. Some of the work on Hanover Street is already encompassed in the Meadows to George Street project, and is likely to be among the first as it is an important public transport corridor.
