On the sidelines

Brian Ferguson’s Inside Arts opinion piece in Wednesday’s paper highlights that “the schisms at the heart of public debate in Edinburgh have opened even further”. This follows on from a raft of articles in the national press over the past weeks about over-tourism and “Disneyfication” of our World Heritage city. But who knows what the residents of Edinburgh want? Who has asked us? Earlier in November, The Scotsman carried an article about Donald Emslie, the new chair of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG). Mr Emslie “admitted that the tourist industry needs to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of its residents”. So it is unacceptable that the current consultation by ETAG on the “draft” Edinburgh Tourism 2030 Strategy has all but sidelined residents from the process. ETAG even refused to attend meetings of the New Town & Old Town Community Councils on the grounds of insufficient resources. Meeting Community Councils is regarded as an essential step in any consultation on matters of this importance. Instead, ETAG held just two two-hour public “drop-in” sessions – a token response to what is evidently of major concern to residents in the centre of the city.

It has been stated by ETAG that residents are being represented by three Edinburgh councillors who sit on the Strategic Implementation Group. No feedback on this “representation” on behalf of residents is available. Residents have effectively been left only with the online consultation to express views. However, this survey is both nebulous in the questions asked and spurious in the method it uses to measure opinion. More fundamentally, it avoids obtaining views on the hard physical impact on the city of the planned expansion of tourism.

Residents should expect that their views on this are not hived off by the council to the “off-line” agency of ETAG and that there is an open, transparent attempt to find out what they really think.

CAROL NIMMO Chair, New Town & Broughton

Community Council Royal Terrace, Edinburgh