Cars and small coaches will be allowed to continue to access the public realm area, St James Square, outside the W Hotel at St James Quarter, as the council averts further legal action.
The area of land, past the bollards at the top of Elder Street, will be leased by the council to the hotel owner to enable a Stopping Up Order to proceed.
The hotel owner and the security team at St James Quarter will become jointly responsible for regulating vehicles in and out of the square all on a limited basis, and subject to a Standard Operating Procedure to be agreed with the council.
Two vehicles (taxi or private hire car) or one small coach with a maximum of 25 seats are allowed in the square at any one time, unless the UK Threat level is increased to Critical, in which case only one vehicle would be permitted. Records will be kept, particularly of the vehicles which are not granted access for any reason.
The traffic will include Executive Coaches and taxis dropping off and picking up guests, and vehicles cannot drive over the pedestrian and cycle path on the western side of the square. The hotel has already placed wooden planters and a barrier to restrict vehicles to follow a certain route into and out of the square.
Stopping Up Order
This method – to use a Stopping Up Order rather than traffic regulation orders – is the council’s considered response to two petitions for judicial review raised in the Court of Session in the last three years by the owners of the W Hotel and the owners of St James Quarter. (The first was sisted, or paused, and the second conceded by the council.) The decision of the Transport and Environment Committee means that the threat of a third judicial review has been avoided. This is the third time the council has formally discussed the matter.
The petitions suggested that previous decisions by councillors were not reasoned and were “irrational”. It was also said in one court writ that “the council’s transportation department was consulted about the planning application but did not object to the proposals to access the hotel”.
The hotel and the car park are owned by two separate legal entitles, adding to the practical confusion of whether guests could simply be dropped off through the underground car park, rather than accessing the hotel through what would otherwise be a pedestrianised area. In any case, the hotel owner said that the expectation when planning permission was granted was that limited vehicle access to the five star hotel would be allowed.
VIP guests
There is a small VIP area on Level B2 in the car park, but this has to be manned during any arrivals and departures, making it difficult to use for every guest. There were other suggestions that using the car park for hotel guests would add to the time it would take to check in and out owing to conflict with shoppers.
In an email from the owners of St James Quarter to the council in July 2024, their position is made clear: “St James Square has been specifically designed and agreed for the purpose of hotel drop off and any further hotel car parking needed would use the public car park, once guests and their luggage have entered the hotel. The significant impact of all guests being forced to use the public car park for check in and drop off as the first experience of a 5-star hotel offer in Edinburgh would, in Marriott’s view, be internationally unique and this would damage the custom, reputation and therefore the income of the hotel and the City of Edinburgh.”
Cllr Iain Whyte said that the barrier – meant to be temporary – “looks like something on an army firing range”. There was however no mention of the design of any future infrastructure in the square.
The barrier at the five star hotel looks like “something on an army firing range”
Cllr Iain Whyte
Committee Meeting
Cllr Kevin Lang said: “Given where we are I am not keen on simply just rolling over and doing nothing around this. The decision which the committee took on two occasions were actually taken for very sound reasons. This looks like, and I think still should be, a space for people not vehicles. This is not some sort of theoretical point. We are seeing the risks and dangers from vehicle movements in practice in this space since everything was built.”
The SNP group noted that there had been 27 near misses involving vehicles and five involving cycles in St James Square/Elder Street between September 2024 and August 2025. They called for a review of the operating procedure, suggesting there would be only two vehicles per hour allowed into the square and limiting the time for all vehicles to a maximum of 8 minutes per hour. The Green Group suggested a raised table at the Elder Street crossing to Multrees Walk to improve pedestrian safety. These proposals were included in the final decision.
The convener, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, said: “It is important that we recognise that this has been to committee twice before. None of us on this committee want to put ourselves in a position where public funds are maybe going to have to be invested in a costly legal case. But I would urge the developers to work with officers to find the most appropriate solution. We are making a decision today to delegate this to officers to finalise the negotiations with the developer and hopefully get a satisfactory outcome.”
The Conservative group took an opposing view and asked that the unamended officer report was adopted, but instead the SNP and Green amendments were incorporated in the decision agreed by councillors by 9 votes to 2. This means that a stopping up order will be drafted. Access to the square will be controlled by the hotel as tenant in a lease of the land by the council, but the council will have a position as landlord to agree what exact permission is being granted. If the terms of the lease are broken in any way then the council has the last say.
The whole area is monitored by CCTV view by security staff in St James Quarter. The Procedure provides that waiting vehicles will be monitored so that Elder Street does not become a taxi rank.
