Capital of tat

Edinburgh Marketing’s Gordon Robertson rejects Alexander Mccall Smith’s plea that the city should “put the needs of its residents first” and seek to stop its civic reinvention as a “vulgar wasteland” (Letters; 22 December). As Princes Street degenerates into a hucksterish zone of beer shanties, fairgrounds and events venues, and the Royal Mile becomes an al fresco tartan tat emporium, we only need the evidence of our own eyes to see the results of uncontrolled commercial exploitation.

According to the council’s own 2013 hotel schedule a total of 6,351 rooms had been developed or granted consent since 2007. This was more than 158 per cent of the upper target of 4,000 additional rooms required by 2015. By 2016, with 2,858 hotel room consents in the pipeline, this over provision was almost 180 per cent. Nothing daunted, the rampage continues, with the council selling off land adjacent to the Central Library to accommodate another 250 rooms – and that’s merely the tip of a Titanic-sized iceberg. Meanwhile the Airbnb portfolio investment explosion has severely distorted the city centre housing market.

So who is benefiting from this test-to-destruction urban business model? Certainly not the citizens. One obvious beneficiary is New York-based private equity partnership Global Infrastructure Partners, owners of Edinburgh Airport, where passenger numbers doubled to over 12 million between 2001 and 2016, and where the Director of Communications happens to be Edinburgh Marketing Chairman Gordon Robertson. Well, there’s a surprise!

DAVID J BLACK St Giles Street, Edinburgh