Gardens in need of repair after market

BY ELLIE FORBES

MORE than £150,000 was needed to reinstate Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens after it was turned into a mud bath by the Christmas market.

About 2.6million people visited the market, which was held at East Princes Street Gardens for seven weeks.

Pictures of the aftermath showed the site in a terrible state, as heritage campaigners urged for a rethink on mass tourism in Edinburgh.

It has now been revealed the cost to repair the gardens was more than £150,000 – three times higher than previous years.

Producers of the Christmas market, Underbelly, paid the City of Edinburgh Council in full for the works as is part of their contract to deliver the event. But the council also paid an additional £40,000 for drainage work on the site which led to the delay in the gardens reopening fully to the public until just a few weeks ago.

Underbelly said this year there was more ground to reinstate following an expansion of the market, leading to an increase in cost.

The entertainment firm said “no decisions” have been made about 2020’s Christmas Market and Hogmanay, which are under threat due to coronavirus.

A spokesman said: “Edinburgh’s Christmas, produced by Underbelly, pays all the costs of reinstating the gardens.

“The drainage works are for long-term improvements and not a direct result of the Winter Festivals.”

Conservative Lothian MSP Miles Briggs said: “While the

Christmas Festival is a popular destination for residents and visitors in December, this must be weighed against East Princess Street Gardens being inaccessible at other times in the year.”

Culture and communities vice convener, councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, said: “The benefit of the drainage is that it will enable the lower lawn to recover more quickly following heavy rainfall and allow our residents and visitors to have greater use.”