Councillors agreed to apply Visitor Levy funds to support three projects – The Causey Project, a bus to Lost Shore Resort and the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (EICA) and City Centre Public Realm.
While Thursday’s decision will be referred to the Finance Committee, it is expected to rubber stamp the decision made by the Transport and Environment Committee.
Capital funding for the Causey project – a community campaign which has run for 19 years – will amount to almost £2 million over two years to deliver key infrastructure improvements, enhancing connectivity and the public realm.
The plans for a bus route to Ratho and the EICA have already been trialled by a commercial provider, but the £150,000 funding will cover a council funded trial run by HcL from August 2026 for six months. If this pilot is successful then the Visitor Levy Funding will make a contribution to the cost of the additional bus route.
Spending for Princes Street and George Street has been made a little trickier because of Wednesday’s planning committee decision on Princes Street and the Waverley Valley and the council was described by Cllr Kevin Lang as being in the “Rose Street limbo” where the council “does not know what we’re doing on George Street. The reason we paused George Street was to focus on Princes Street but now we’re not doing anything over and above what was already planned.” His fears were allayed by the Convener who explained there will be a new report for the next TEC meeting with further details.
It is expected that Edinburgh Council will raise around £50 million per year when Visitor Levy monies begin to flow into the council coffers from next month. This total figure is projected in the next financial year rather than this, but the funding is expected to be considerable additional funds for the council to spend.
The Visitor Levy scheme is intended to support Edinburgh’s status as a great cultural and heritage city. There are three strands – to Sustain, Support and Develop aspects of the city’s public services and cultural events provision.
Earlier in the year the council asked the Edinburgh Visitor Levy Advisory Forum to assess five projects and make funding recommendations for each. All projects must have a positive impact on the visitor experience, as well as the people who live in the city all year round.
The three projects are:
The Causey
The Causey Project is a long-running campaign to make changes to the street which will make it a “vibrant people-focused area”.The project asked for capital funding of just under £2million to make the changes and improvements, and this has been approved from the City Operations and Infrastructure fund.
Isobel Leckie, Secretary of Causey Development Trust had been at the meeting all morning by the time the decision was made. She was accompanied by Alistair Blamire, whose late wife Alison, an Edinburgh architect, first had the idea of turning the area between Nicolson Street and Buccleuch Street into something far more than a traffic island.
Mrs Leckie said to The Edinburgh Reporter: “Today is all about Alison and her vision, and looking outside her office and saying ‘Surely we can do better than this ghastly ordinary redundant traffic island. She had already championed small places in Italy – she had done research on small places in Italy. That was taken up also by the late architect Oliver Chapman. He was very keen. He understood exactly what Alison was about – and I think it has taken a long time for the council to understand. It is not just about making West Crosscauseway a nicer more attractive place. It’s about the community that builds around that.
“I always remember one of our residents saying that she had lived there for 30 years and it was only when The Causey started happening and people started gathering that she found she had a community. The years have been interesting. I don’t know if I would do it again!”
Alistair was also pleased, and quite emotional after the council decision. He said: “Now we are on to the more detailed stuff of organising the council to get the contracts sorted out – all the pragmatic stuff now.”
Bus Service to Ratho
The new direct bus service has launched connecting Edinburgh city centre with Lost Shore Surf Resort, Edinburgh International Climbing Arena and Ratho Village, following years of campaigning for improved public transport links to the area.
Service 67 which will be run by HcL is to run hourly Monday to Friday, with plans to expand to seven days a week in the coming weeks.
The new route connects Ratho directly with stops including Haymarket Station and Hermiston Gate Park & Ride, making it easier to reach two of Scotland’s leading adventure sports destinations without a car. This is regarded as a major milestone following several years of campaigning to provide a bus service to the village of Ratho itself and also two of the city’s leisure attractions.
Lee Wood, Managing Director at Lost Shore Surf Resort, said: “This is fantastic news for Lost Shore, EICA, the Ratho community and everyone who has worked so hard to make the case for better public transport to this part of Edinburgh.
“We’ve believed from the beginning that world-class adventure should be accessible to as many people as possible. Lost Shore and EICA offer two incredible experiences right next door to each other, but getting here without a car has been a real barrier for too many people.
“Service 67 has the potential to change that. For the first time, people will have a simple, direct connection from the city centre to come surfing at Lost Shore, climbing at EICA, or spend a day experiencing both.
“This has taken a huge collective effort, particularly from the Ratho Bus Working Group, who have campaigned tirelessly for better connections. Now the most important thing we can do is get behind the service and use it.”
The City Centre Public Realm (Princes Street and George Street)
In February this year officers were asked about committing some of the COI budget to improve city centre streets. And on Thursday it was agreed to ring fence the £31.75 million borrowing previously allocated to George Street and First New Town and use some of it to improve the city centre.
On Wednesday the council’s Planning Committee agreed a plan for a radical redesign for Princes Street. The plan includes improved public toilets and drinking fountains, as well as longer opening hours for Princes Street Gardens, new natural stone paving, public seating and an upgrade for the historic Ross Bandstand.
In addition, Princes Street’s southern footway would be widened by approximately 1.5 metres.
Council officers say this would maintain public transport efficiency while still allowing the creation of a “significant transformation” of Princes Street and the Gardens.
They also assured councillors that the changes will not preclude future improvements.
When it came to the Transport Committee agreeing to spend some of the Visitor Levy on the street, the planning decision was taken into account.
Green councillor, Chas Booth, said that in light of the planning committee decision he asked the council to find a way to complete the gap in the City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL) to be completed along George Street.
At present this runs from Roseburn to the West End on Melville Street, and then picks up again at the eastern end of George Street where there is a cycle lane on Leith Street and Leith Walk.
Cllr Booth said: “All our addendum seeks to do is to say we have now got a gap in the City Centre West to East Link, let’s look at what we can do to fill that gap as soon as possible, because at the moment cyclists have no protection.”
His Green colleague Ross Mackenzie said: “We have so many challenging streets to provide cycle segregation and safe cycling in the city, and George Street really isn’t one of them. It’s really wide. It’s like all those big, wide Glasgow streets to have excellent cycle segregation, and yet still, after all these years and all this discussion, we have this massive gap. So I hope when this report comes back, as Councillor Gardiner has said, that it will include suggestion for a cheap temporary solution like planters and removal of parking that can get this going, that can get this moving and this gap filled without without waiting for the back and forth over the expensive public realm projects.”
The Convener, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, confirmed that there will be a report at the November TEC meeting providing some clarity on Princes Street and George Street.
He said: “The issue I have with George Street is that it is one of the biggest car parks in the middle of the city centre.I just don’t think that we have scope to do much change while that’s still in existence. But hopefully, some clarity will be provided around that as we move forward.”
