A call for an enquiry into whether Edinburgh Council is being charged more than other parts of Scotland for policing of public events has been endorsed by Edinburgh councillors.
Conservative councillor Joanna Mowat raised the matter and councillors agreed that the council leader would ask if a low police headcount was contributing to high prices.
Edinburgh has the lowest number of police officers per head of population of any Scottish council.
Cllr Mowat said she had brought the matter forward due to the Terminal V festival announcing that it was moving from the city, in part due to policing costs.
The matter was raised at a licensing sub-committee meeting last month, where the event’s organisers said they were sad to be leaving the city after their last festival this summer.
Cllr Mowat said: “An applicant who was bringing his event, his techno dance event, to the capital for the last time – obviously one I’m not personally familiar with.
“He said he was taking it to another place, which I understand is going to be Glasgow. And part of the reason they gave is the high cost – a disparately high cost – of policing charging for events.
“It will not escape anyone that we have a lot of events in Edinburgh. Many of our residents enjoy going to these events, they attract visitors to the city which support many businesses which, of course, our residents work in.
“I do think it is a matter of interest if there is a disparate charging regime going on between different parts of Scotland, which makes the policing element as Police Scotland are now on a full recharge for events, if that is greater in Edinburgh.”
She continued to say she was unaware if this was just in relation to the Terminal V festival, events of that kind, or all events in the city.
She added that she felt it was appropriate for the council’s chief executive to write to the Chief Superintendent in the sake of ‘transparency’.
In the recent £90 million visitor levy income allocation agreement, several million pounds have been allocated to Police Scotland to increase policing in the city centre.
The police service is part funding the increased police presence along with the council, with the funds seeing an extra 45 police officers covering the city centre.
At the time, Cllr Mowat’s conservative colleague said the city was ‘bailing out’ Police Scotland, while she said Police Scotland should be covering the entire cost of the increased police presence.
At Thursday’s meeting, Cllr Mowat remarked that there had been ‘discomfort’ about policing numbers in the city and the policing of Edinburgh since Police Scotland was formed in 2014.
Prior to that, the city was covered by the Lothian and Borders Police, which had a closer relationship with the council.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
