Festivals have been a force for good in underpinning Edinburgh’s success story

I’m sure everyone will agree with the comments from the Cockburn Association and Edinburgh World Heritage that support spreading the benefits of Edinburgh’s Festivals and reducing the impact they have on the environment.

However, I do have to point out that the suggestion from Adam Wilkinson (“Festivals facing shake-up calls for comeback”, Scotsman, 14 April) that the Festivals have not left the city in “better shape than they found it”, is more than a little wide of the mark.

When Edinburgh’s Festivals began after the Second World War, the physical state of the city was a matter of public record. The then ‘Lord Provost’s Commission on City Development’ bemoaned the fact that Princes Street was seen in the eyes of many as “irremediable”, and the report described “closed and windowless” houses in the High Street that had “gradually been allowed to decay”.

Tourists didn’t gaze in wonder at the stunning Old Town as they have in recent times, rather they were described as staring aghast at the dereliction.

Since those days our Festivals have become a global icon and a foundation of the strongest city economy in the UK outside London. Success that means there are almost no buildings in the city centre on the ‘At Risk’ register.

Even now Princes Street is beingreimaginedthankstothe success the Festivals and tourism have brought. The fact that the city centre is in fine shape is in no small way down to the success of our Festivals.

As we face the extraordinary challenges that the coronavirus epidemic has brought and the record job losses that will almost certainly follow, we should be committed to ensuring our Festivals, jobs and our thriving economy are preserved every bit as well as our magnificent historic buildings have been.

DONALD ANDERSON The Spinney, Edinburgh