Latest news with #CityofEdinburghCouncil
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
Public invited to help shape management plan for Forth Bridge
UNESCO asks that all World Heritage Sites maintain a management plan to support the future management needs of a World Heritage Site, to coordinate the interests of associated organisations, groups and individuals, and to maximise the benefits and minimise any negative impacts from the World Heritage Site status. The Forth Bridge's Management Plan is now 10 years old and is being updated in 2025 for the next ten-year period. A multi-partner working group has begun the task of updating the management plan with membership drawn from Network Rail, Fife Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Historic Environment Scotland, VisitScotland and Transport Scotland. READ MORE: The process is being overseen by the wider Forth Bridges Forum and Forth Bridge World Heritage Management Group. Members of the public are initially being asked for their input into the content for the new management plan via an online questionnaire. There will be further consultation on the draft management plan when it is ready later this year. Councillor Altany Craik, Fife Council's spokesperson for finance, economy and strategic planning, said: "The Forth Bridge is a much-loved Scottish landmark, internationally recognisable as an impressive feat of engineering from the Victorian age. Over 135 years after it opened, an average of 220 trains per day still cross the bridge with passengers or freight. The management plan will draw together updates on policies and issues that are being seen to affect the protection of the World Heritage Site.' Councillor Joan Griffiths, Convener of the Planning Committee at the City of Edinburgh Council, added: 'The Forth Bridge has an impact on travel for residents and businesses far and wide, and anyone with an interest in the bridge or World Heritage is encouraged to respond to the questionnaire which is being centrally coordinated by Fife Council on behalf of all the partners on the Working Group.'
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Herald Scotland
Can the city that failed at Just Eat bikes now go dockless?
Unlike the previous scheme, the new one will be 'dockless' - in which bikes can be located, hired and unlocked using a smartphone app and don't require a docking station - and it could be arriving very soon. An initial 'diluted version' of the Edinburgh scheme is hoped to roll out before the Edinburgh Festival, with, said a council officer, 100-200 dockless cycles across the city centre by August. If successful it could expand to between 600 and 800. The previous troubled project, introduced in 2018, lasted only three years and was beleaguered by problems, especially vandalism and theft, which made its self-financing model unsustainable for Serco, its provider. By Spring 2019, the initial 500-strong fleet of cycles, delivered by Serco and sponsored by Just Eat, had been reduced to about 300, with many bikes out of service for repair. In its second year, around one in four of the scheme's 550 bikes had to be repaired each week because of vandalism, wear and tear, and weather-related issues. Docking stations were also damaged. It is also not the only city to have tried and failed on a bike share scheme. Manchester, for instance, with much fanfare introduced its Mobikes in 2017, but within a year, the Chinese dockless bike firm withdrew from the city following their constant vandalism, and hundreds of bikes each month ending up at the bottom of the Manchester Ship Canal and other waterways. Since then the city has tried again, with a docked system, their Bee bikes. According to Councillor Stephen Jenkinson, transport convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, a keen advocate for the new scheme, since the city's initial bike experiment, the technology, including GPS, gyroscopes and software, 'has advanced significantly'. 'The companies,' he observed, 'know where all their bikes are. They know what state the battery is in. They know whether it's where it should be, whether it's not where it should be; whether it's upside down, lying on its side. It's the responsibility of them as a service provider to ensure that this is a success. The management and the maintenance of the service will be provided by that third party. And ultimately they don't want it to fail.' The new technology, he explained, also means the service 'can flex quite quickly' because they will have access to a level of data that the previous service did not have. "If," he said, "there are areas of the town where either we as a local authority, or they as a provider, are uncomfortable with then that can be discussed and managed. We can also control not only the locations of where the bikes can be picked up and dropped off, but the speed at which the bikes can be used – and we can control that in different parts of the town." Cllr Stephen Jenkinson tries out a Dott e-bike (Image: City of Edinburgh Council) The two-year trial scheme is set to be entirely electric (around a third of Just Eat bikes were electric and all used metal docking stations). Cllr Jenkinson explained the decision to go all electric: 'Edinburgh isn't known for being a particularly flat city. It's not the easiest city to get around under your own steam. With this, we're not looking to convert people who are already cycling to cycle more. What we're hoping to do is convince people who don't necessarily use cycling as their main mode of transport to consider it. "To allow that to happen you've got to make it as easy as possible. So it has got to be affordable and it has got to be relatively easier and it's certainly easier cycling on an e-bike up the mound than it would be out of the saddle.' READ MORE: Already, the City of Edinburgh Council has had a 'show and tell', in which two companies, Dott, Europe's largest shared e-mobility provider, and Californian company Lime, talked through their offering. Councillor Jenkinson described those sessions as 'well attended by both councillors across all parties and officers as well and those companies got a pretty hard time - I don't think they were expecting the level of scrutiny that they got' Ultimately, other companies will be considered through an open procurement process. Since there is no funding within the council's budget to deliver a cycle scheme for Edinburgh, what is being investigated is whether it's possible to deliver a scheme at no cost to the council, where the risk is absorbed by the providers. Dockless bike schemes do have their problems and they can be seen in the experiences of other cities in the UK. For instance, in London a significant proportion are still 'hacked' (essentially stolen/used for free). At one point the rate was believed to be 5% of trips, but Lime, last year, issued an official company statement saying: 'Antisocial behaviour is rare and hacked trips now account for 1% of total trips.' The schemes have also suffered from complaints about the way the bikes are dumped, left on pavements. Last year, for instance, 'around 100 complaints' had been made about a dockless bike trial in Haringey, delivered by both Lime and British provider Forest, mostly about dockless bikes being left strewn across pavements. Lime bikes strewn on a pavement in Kingsbury (Image: Bremt LB) Haringey "creative action" campaigner, Martin Ball, told me: 'The dockless bike scheme has created accessibility problems across Haringey, as it has London-wide. There are bottleneck areas where mass ending of journeys leaves a large number of bikes in one area. Often making them difficult for people to get through.' 'While this might be an inconvenience for many; for those with sight loss or a physical disability it is a significant barrier and a hazard. Narrow pavements have even less space. Large bulky bikes are often on the ground on their side and this is dangerous especially in poor lighting.' 'Another consequence of the Tottenham stadium being used for large events as well as football matches is that spectators travel and leave the bike wherever is convenient for them but a frequent nuisance for residents. One lone bike doesn't seem a problem, but discarded in the streets around the stadium, they often block pathways as on pavement parking is legal on many Tottenham roads.' A Dott bike carelessly dumped in Colchester (Image: Finley Greenleaf, Colchester Sixth Form College) There are also concerns about the road behaviour of riders, as well as safety, and recent articles described how orthopaedic surgeons were having to treat 'Lime bike leg', patients with legs broken after being pinned under the heavy bikes. But it's also worth acknowledging that for all the complaints, the experiment with dockless bikes in London is also seen as a success in the sense that it has resulted in more people cycling in London. A recent article in the Economist, titled 'London has become a cycling city', credited the scheme with being an important element in a significant uptick in cycling in the city, which according to a traffic survey, was up by 57%. 'What changed?' it said. 'Most riders still use personal bikes, which account for 60% of the increase since 2022 (helped by all those cycle lanes). But in the past two years, the use of rental-electric bikes has increased four-fold. So ubiquitous is a whizzy white-and-green variety that the fruit they are named after has become a verb: 'Shall we Lime?' On cycling news platform writer George Hill described them as 'brilliant'. He wrote: 'The other day I was at a friend's birthday party in Rotherhithe, and I was staying near Tower Bridge. That would have cost me £20 and 20 minutes in a taxi each way, and it would have taken me about 25 minutes by tube; but on a Lime bike, I could do it in 12 minutes and it cost me about three quid.' They have also been hugely popular with the young. Half of all Londoners between 18-34 use them every single week. Meanwhile, Glasgow's nextbike scheme, which uses a docking system, is now over a decade old, and in those years since the folding of Edinburgh's Just Eat bikes, has been quietly running with little drama - though it is not without its problems. Residents talk of the need for more docking bays, more bikes and in better repair. The chief executive of the City of Edinburgh Council, Paul Lawrence, said: 'I was in other cities over the last couple of weeks and some of the evidence I saw was really, really good and some of it you looked at it and went 'I'm not sure about that'. It's kind of the nature of the beast.' Reflecting on the previous scheme, he said, 'Were there Just Eat bikes in the Water of Leith? Yes, there were. Was it managed in the way we wanted it to be? Most of the time but not completely. The important thing on our side of the fence is to make sure to the operator that our criteria and our expectations are crystal clear, and that's what we will do and see how it goes this time around.' Council leader, Jane Meagher, said: 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If we're going to be serious about getting people out of their cars then we need to offer a whole range of options for folk, including for visitors of course. 'My thoughts are suck it and see. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.' Such a scheme, observed Jenkinson, is not about getting people who already cycle to cycle more 'it's about convincing people who don't actually cycle at all, or not very often, that it's a viable option'. People may, it is conceived, might use them for part of a journey rather than a whole journey, shifting between different modes of transport, bus, tram, bike. Jenkinson gave a personal example of how this might work. 'To get home quite often I'll get two buses. If I had the opportunity to use a bike to get from the City Chambers to Tollcross, would I do that? Quite possibly and I could get home quicker by using multiple forms of transport. That's a good use case.' Once approved, with no infrastructure to be installed other than painting on the pavements, it could take just weeks to get the bikes onto the streets. For the purpose of the trial, said Cllr Jenkinson, it will be focussed only on the city centre area of Edinburgh. 'But I'd like to think that if we have a really successful trial and the people of Edinburgh think that this is deemed a success, working with whoever provider we have, I can certainly see the coverage expanding across much of Edinburgh.' 'Maybe not everybody,' he added, 'is as bought into this as I am. I'm fortunate enough to travel around Europe and the world, and you can see how these schemes have developed over the years, and I suppose I'm fortunate that I don't bear the scars of the previous scheme because I wasn't elected to the local authority at that time. I look at this with a fresh pair of eyes, but also armed with the evidence of seeing how it can be successful.' With additional reporting by Donald Turvill.
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Scotsman
a day ago
- General
- Scotsman
Time ball to drop again from top Edinburgh monument
The time ball has returned to Calton Hill. Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A 19th century time ball that helped seafarers set their clocks for decades is due to drop from the top of one of Edinburgh's great monuments once more. The 90kg time ball was fitted to the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill in 1852 and dropped every day at 1pm to assist sailors in the Firth of Forth with timekeeping and navigation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Made from wood and zinc, the time ball was taken down last year for restoration. From next month, it will keep time once again after Edinburgh City Council spent £500,000 on repairs to the timepiece and the part of the monument which supports it. Karl Chapman, City of Edinburgh Council's head of heritage, culture, museums and galleries, said: ''Now we have GPS and phones but back in the day this was modern technology. ''People are still fascinated by this today which is why it's important we maintain the time ball and the Nelson Monument - it's a fascinating piece of history and mechanism.'' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Nelson Monument stands at the highest point of Calton Hill, built in honour of Admiral Lord Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars in 1805. The battle was a victory for the Royal Navy, but Nelson was fatally wounded. When the news reached Edinburgh, a group of subscribers banded together to raise funds for a monument as a tribute to Nelson. The design, by Robert Burn, was modelled on an upturned telescope. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The monument's prominent position made it useful for sending messages across the city, but in 1852 it took on new importance when a time ball was installed at the top of the tower. Professor Charles Piazzi Smith, the Astronomer Royal in Scotland, proposed the time ball to assist with ship's navigation. The ball would drop at exactly one o'clock as a signal to ships moored in the Firth of Forth, enabling captains to check the accuracy of their chronometers and correctly calculate their longitude at sea – a tradition that continues even though technological progress means it is no longer vital to safe seafaring. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad After its installation, Piazzi Smyth continued to work out the time and triggered the ball drop himself. He even devised an automatic system to drop the ball, and nine years later in 1861 the 1 o'clock gun fire from Edinburgh Castle was added on foggy days. The latest restoration work on the timeball was carried out by the Cumbria Clock Company. The entire mechanism of the time ball has now been automated, with the timber mast replaced and lightening protection renewed. Some stonework has also been replaced and repaired. Margaret Graham, City of Edinburgh Council's culture and communities convener, said: ''Half a million pounds sounds like a lot of money but in the scheme of things, in our heritage buildings, it's not a lot. "It's a lot of specialist work that needs to be done.''
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
George Street revamp: How pedestrianisation plan could be scaled-back
The existing plans include widened and de-cluttered pavements, landscaped seating areas and a central, six-metre-wide cycleway. The council says the changes will create a 'greener, safer, accessible place for everyone to enjoy' in the heart of the city. However, there is growing scepticism over the affordability of the scheme and uncertainty over funding sources, while political support in the City Chambers is wavering. City of Edinburgh Council transport convener, Labour's Stephen Jenkinson, told The Herald he believed it remained a 'project worth backing' but stressed a balance had to be struck between 'doing something that's realistic and doing something that's worthy'. The plan involves widening pavements and building a cycle superhighway along the length of George Street (Image: City of Edinburgh Council) Councillors on the transport committee will consider a report with 'gold standard, silver standard and bronze standard' options at the end of June as they look to finalise the street's redesign, he said. But rising costs and the risk of further delays could lead elected members to abandon the project altogether. Cllr Jenkinson added: 'I want to try and get ourselves into a position where we have a kind of consensus with what we should do with George Street going forward. Ultimately I might not be able to get it. I think it'll be difficult to get the consensus because various parties have clearly articulated their positions on George Street and we'll have to see where we end up.' According to sources, the report will present three options: proceeding with the current plan - previously costed at £39m but now expected to rise; a reduced-scope alternative - estimated between £20m and £30m - that omits tree planting, includes Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM), and removes the existing setts in the central carriageway; and a 'do minimum' option, involving upgraded and widened footways along with previously-agreed operational changes, at an estimated cost of around £15m. All would include around £9m for diverting underground utilities. A fourth option is expected to propose only removing parking from the street. Read more from The Herald's Future of Edinburgh series: The last update to councillors, in September, revealed a funding shortfall of around £14m. It is anticipated that income from the city's new visitor levy could help bridge the gap, alongside further funding bids to the Scottish Government and the National Lottery's heritage fund. Officials have previously argued the scheme represents 'great value,' noting that approximately £30m would still need to be spent on resurfacing George Street's roads and pavements — even if the wider public realm revamp is scrapped. 'There's external funding that would have to come in at various points to help fund this project,' Cllr Jenkinson said, 'and when you're looking for external funding, predominantly Scottish Government money, you're up against other public realm projects across the country. 'So if you are actually going and asking for support for a project which isn't particularly inspiring it's going to be harder to secure any finance, never mind the finance you need, to deliver it. The plan would create more space for pedestrians on George Street (Image: Gordon Terris) 'I would like to think one of the most important streets in Scotland's capital city would be up there with any other public realm project in the country. What we actually want is somewhere for people to walk about, enjoy, sit and enjoy a beer or coffee or whatever. We have to design for the future, not the past.' The transport chief admitted the pace of delivery was 'too slow' and said he was 'focused on moving forward'. It's currently anticipated work could start in 2027 and take two years to complete. 'We're all fully aware the financial framework we're working in is tightening, it's not getting any easier to deliver anything,' he said. 'I'm a realist and I think it's important that you do what you can to ensure the projects you're looking to develop are the right ones and are delivered correctly for the right amount of money.' A recent council report setting out infrastructure projects to be prioritised proposed 'proceeding' with George Street's overhaul, noting it 'may be eligible for National Lottery Heritage funding'. 'How not to manage a project' Jo Mowat, Scottish Conservatives councillor for Edinburgh City Centre, said George Street had been an exercise in 'how not to manage a project'. The plan has 'shape-shifted according to where the funding is coming from,' she said, adding the council has been 'at the mercy of what the Scottish Government will fund through its arms-length [active travel] organisation Sustrans'. Cllr Mowat said as a result too much emphasis has been put on creating a 'cycle superhighway' and this 'comprised the design of the street'. Read more from our new investigation: '[George Street] is not really a particular transport link because of the squares at either end, so for it to become the main cycling connection would be awkward for cyclists who like to go in very straight lines,' she said. 'When you look at traditionally how the street has been used and what people want to do and think back from those first principles, this was designed as a place for people to promenade and gather. "You've got shopping but also institutions, the Assembly Rooms, churches, you've got these places where people gather, and obviously now you've got restaurants and bars. So this is a place for people to gather.' Asked if the project was now doomed, as some have suggested, she said: 'I think it's really difficult to ride back from it, but I don't see how we're going to pay for it. I would be really concerned you would start something you can't finish. 'I suspect it will be scaled back and it won't be quite what it is now — and that might not necessarily be a bad thing.' 'We're expecting it to be a cheaper version' How to most effectively execute the street's pedestrianisation with minimal disruption to businesses and residents in the city centre has been a long-running debate in the capital. 'I think about 20 years ago I was attending meetings about this,' said David Hunter, convener of Living Streets Edinburgh. 'One of the things I think is really unfortunate about George Street is there's been so many consultations and so many workshops, if nothing happens now it's very difficult to get people motivated to come and talk about the same topic they've talked about half a dozen or more times, often being told 'this time we're really going to do it'. So there's going to be diminishing engagement and trust.' Mr Hunter said it was an inescapable fact that 'money is going to be tight,' but added the plan for George Street suffered from the same problems as many major projects which are 'over-designed, over-engineered and too expensive'. He said: 'We can actually achieve quite a lot of improvements without spending 20, 30, 40 million pounds on schemes. 'Everyone is really a bit ashamed of George Street as it currently is in terms of how it could be. I think we're expecting, assuming some measure of pedestrianisation does go forward. I think we're expecting it to be a cheaper version. I think doing things quickly and cheaply has got a lot going for it.' Like Councillor Mowat, Mr Hunter believes the cycleway should be dropped from the street's redesign. 'If you make traffic volumes low enough you don't need a cycleway, it should be safe to cycle in,' he said. The council has ambitious plans for George Street - but rising costs could mean cutting back (Image: City of Edinburgh Council) 'Generally, rather than just saying you need a segregated cycleway everywhere, a more radical solution is to reduce traffic to the levels people can cycle safely on the road. 'I would rather see a 90, 95% pedestrianised George Street that is overwhelmingly a pedestrian space for people to walk and wheel, rather than a street with a kind of cycle superhighway going through it. 'We have to be pragmatic about this.' 'This is the flagship street of the New Town' If works eventually commence, the diverse array of businesses and organisations operating on George Street will be most affected by the street being dug-up block-by-block. Dr William Duncan, who represents their views as chair of the George Street Association, said they've 'consistently been supportive' but a 'cloud of uncertainty' has hung over the scheme for years now. His advice to the council is 'spend the money now and spend it wisely'. 'I think the project has to go ahead,' he said. 'And corners will only build up future costs. 'If cutting back means cutting back on what happens underneath the roads and pavements, it's just building up problems for the future. 'Otherwise you're just going to have constant piecemeal disruption to the road. Because the city council's control over how utilities do that is limited and that's to do with statutory powers. The risk is that within a few months of a completed project things are being dug up again, there isn't the reinstatement back to the quality materials. 'If you're going to have a period of disruption of at least two years, if not a bit longer, people will be prepared to put up with the pain involved in that if they can then see a period of stability, it's been done well. What would be very unfortunate is a situation where each block of the street is done piecemeal and then we'll have to wait for more funding.' 'This is the flagship street of the New Town; it's the street they named after the King, it's the centre of a World Heritage Site. It needs to convey the message that it's been done. Read more: 'I think everyone understands that having cars coming into the city centre is no longer the direction of travel. The question is at what pace can you make these changes? What's also quite important is that there isn't just a big void in the middle of George Street and that it's a place where people feel they want to come to, where people feel they can relax.' Under the operational plan for a transformed George Street agreed by councillors in 2023, essential vehicle access such as for deliveries, servicing and licensed taxis will be given access during morning and evening hours and controlled by automated bollards. Private hire vehicles will be restricted from accessing George Street at all times, while exemptions will be permitted for coaches, minibuses and other vehicles deemed necessary to support the needs of hotels and places of worship. Blue badge holders will still have access 24/7 and will still be able to park in disabled bays on the street. Dr Duncan said this represented a 'huge improvement to the operational plan from when it was first mooted'. 'It was basically going to get rid of all the traffic from George Street, only emergency and blue badge holders - very little access. 'It's also got to be recognised that a lot of the buildings here are old, they need care and maintenance. That means trades have got to get to them, and you can't just say 'there will be no traffic whatsoever in the street'. 'It's how you also create an ambience where occasional vehicles that have to get into the street, cyclists and pedestrians can all feel they've got safety. 'Change of use won't suit everyone but we have to create a street after all the turmoil of the work that's done that really works well, that everyone thinks looks good, but actually isn't just a historic piece, is something that is a vibrant part of the city centre. He said the Transient Visitor Levy (TVL), which it is expected could raise an additional £50m for the city by the end of the decade, is a 'welcome addition to the funding available' however pointed out this was 'not yet a stabilised form of income'. 'The levy is going to largely come from people in the city centre. They need to feel that somehow there is something they are contributing to. 'The council is now looking for a multiplicity of funders,' he added. 'A potential funder is to do with the heritage. I think they will have to do an optimisation situation where those people who fund it feel they are getting their bit out of it. I think it will be quite difficult to persuade people this is a heritage project if it doesn't maintain the quality of the heritage.' 'The council lost control' Although the transformation may narrowly secure sufficient political and business support to proceed, questions remain about its broader public appeal. Chair of the New Town and Broughton Community Council, Peter Williamson, said he didn't think the proposals 'have ever had a lot of support'. The council has proposed pressing on with the pedestrianisation project despite funding uncertainty (Image: Gordon Terris) He said: 'I think people have got slightly sucked into once the ball starts rolling, you've got to get on the pitch and start playing. But you may not like the rules. 'My impression being outside certain people within the council there wasn't a sort of great lot of cheering and foot stamping for this. 'The council seemed to lose control because people started putting in bids for trees, certain types of pavings, kerbs that could be used by people with sight impairment and so on. At that point I think it all began to feel a bit of a mess. 'But the big issue is where's the money going to come from? And we think the council has embarked on a whole lot of major projects and hasn't really got any access to funds to support them. But obviously getting rid of the parking etcetera would open it up. 'Our board position is the council is going for these grand schemes, but is then ignoring maintenance of pavements, streets. So great, you're doing George Street, but if you walked along Rose Street, it's a disgrace. 'The council should concentrate on getting what currently exists up to a reasonable standard.'
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Revealed: Edinburgh engulfed by 'frightening' £1.7bn sea of debt
The Herald can reveal that the debt incurred by the City of Edinburgh Council has risen by over £300m since before the pandemic and now exceeds what was actually spent on city services in 2023/24 by nearly half a billion pounds. Concerns about how the capital will run vital services have surfaced as the council admits in one recent analysis that "radical change" is needed "to achieve organisational financial sustainability". Financial papers show that its overall debt, the vast bulk of which is short-term and long-term borrowing has soared by £309.7m (21.8%) since the pre-pandemic year of 2018/29 to stand at £1.732bn. And internal council predictions indicate that end of year debt mountain could soar as high as £2.877bn in 2029/30. The latest level of debt is £450m more than the £1.279bn that the city was spending in 2023/24 on services, which ranges from the provision of education, social work and waste management to the provision and maintenance of housing, roads, libraries and parks. The escalating debt in Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city serving over 620,000 people to Edinburgh's 510,000, by contrast, was £242m lower than the £1.85bn it had to spend on services. And the interest payments on borrowing and loans by the Edinburgh council over the six years since the pre-pandemic year of 2018/19 amount to £553m - enough to provide over 2600 settled affordable homes for the homeless who are left to live in temporary accommodation in the capital's housing emergency declared in November 2023. Edinburgh is preparing to implement a tourist taxThat servicing of debt has shot up by £23.4m (30%) in recent years from £76.773m in 2021/22 to £100.212m in 2023/24. The issues have arisen while the council has seen the grant it gets from the Scottish Government rise from £363.757m before the Covid pandemic in 2018/19 to £552.075m in 2023/24. It comes as the minority Labour administration controversially plans to implement a 5% tourist tax on overnight accommodation, capped at seven nights from July, next year. The levy is expected to generate up to £50m annually. Critics have raised concerns about its potential impact on affordability, visitor numbers, and the hospitality sector as the tax will affect hotels, bed and breakfasts, self-catering accommodation and properties listed on platforms like Airbnb. READ MORE: And the council has said it believes that tourist tax will help bankroll its world-famous Hogmanay celebrations. It says it has already suffered a decade of "chronic underfunding" which has necessitated £400 million in savings over ten years - which amounts to around a third of what it was spending on services in 2023/24. Edinburgh-born Alba Party leader and former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said the state of Edinburgh's finances was "both staggering and frightening". Kenny MacAskill"Scotland's capital city is in danger of drowning in a sea of debt. A visitor levy won't cover it and, in any event, requires to be used for tourist related purposes to justify it. "Nor will it address the homelessness problem that's now endemic and hurting individuals, families and the city. The council administration needs to come clean on the extent of the problem and the Scottish Government needs to assist not stand idly by. Citizens are entitled to no less." The council's own overview of its financial state states that it predicted a funding gap of over £94.2m by 2029/30. And it said there was "therefore a risk that the council is unable to perform financial planning; deliver an annual balanced budget, manage cash flows; and confirm the ongoing adequacy of its reserves, meaning that it is unable to continue to deliver services and implement change in line with strategic be at risk of an adverse external audit opinion". And their auditors in preparing an analysis of the council's financial performance in 2024/25 in February said that financial sustainability "remains a risk" because of the huge funding gap by 2029/30 alone with associated "challenges" including "pressures for frontline services". But a longer term council projection has revealed a darker picture which predicts an average funding black hole of over £22m each year till 2034/34. That is based on a conservative assumption that there would be a 3% annual increase in staffing and other costs and 'flat cash' levels of grant funding settlement from government. And the study warns that this "reinforces the need for radical change, prioritisation and adoption of a prevention-led operating model". Internal service risk assessments show that with the city in the midst of a homelessness emergency, the housing pressures are almost certainly critical with organisational financial sustainability and financial control seen as "likely to be critical". But new end of year debt estimates show that it is expected to escalate to £2.4bn in 2026/27 and 2.877bn in 2029/30. (Image: Damian Shields) Its annual Treasury Management Strategy approved in March 2024, noted that the council had reached the limit in resources for funding for major capital projects by dipping into short-term investments and "requires to undertake significant external borrowing". The council has admitted to its auditors that the levels of borrowing "will bring significant financing risks". Local government finance scrutineers, the Accounts Commission has told the council: "We do not underestimate the major infrastructure challenges facing Edinburgh, in particular around housing and the school estate, but such levels of borrowing bring risks that could impact future financial sustainability." According to council sources, it has borrowed £290m during the 2024/25 financial year alone- with £170m going toward the management of its social housing stock. That came before the council at the end of April suspended its housing policy amidst a homelessness emergency. The unprecedented move saw all available council-owned housing stock immediately redirected toward people experiencing homelessness until at least June 13, 2025. It was part of Edinburgh's plan to get its worsening housing crisis under control, and it comes after Shelter Scotland raised concerns in 2024 over the council 'not showing the desire' to tackle legal breaches in the right to have a roof over your head. A council housing study showed that the council has failed to accommodate people on 3,263 occasions in the past year – a 115% rise from 2023/24. And as of 31 March 2025 there were 970 homeless households in what it admits is unsuitable temporary accommodation. It had approved a programme to purchase up to 270 properties for use as suitable temporary accommodation. The council is now planning to 'build, build, build', but it is at a price. Future projects include the building of 847 new homes, including 387 affordable, energy efficient homes, as part of a Granton area regeneration project. With capital investment of £220.797m planned for 2025/26, it has meant that the council needs to borrow £127.667m. That loan alone over a 30-year period will incur interest of £99.893m, The Herald has learnt. The council's own auditors have already highlighted to them that the scale of the shorter-term budget gap to 2028/29 will mean the council would find it "increasingly difficult to achieve financial balance in future years". "Members will need to make difficult decisions about spending priorities, service levels and income generation whilst ensuring the results of public consultation exercises are taken into account," they said. Auditors highlighted a risk that "operating in a challenging financial context without medium-term financial planning can compromise financial resilience and sustainability." Princes Street (Image: Colin Mearns) The council's latest financial planning says that while it has a "strong track record of balancing our budget, the funding and income we receive has increasingly been insufficient to meet the rising cost and demand for services, such as homelessness and social care costs". The council's own risk assessments for the final quarter of 2025 shows that housing pressures are almost certainly critical with organisational financial sustainability and financial control "likely to be critical". A February overview from Richard Lloyd-Bithell, a finance and procurement director said that the council does not have medium term financial plans "consistent with sustainable service plans". He said: "This will result in sustainable aspirations including transformation being unobtainable." Edinburgh set ambitious targets and strategies for sustainable development, including achieving net zero emissions by 2030 and a climate-ready future. The City Plan 2030 guides future development, emphasizing green spaces, climate action, and sustainable practices. This plan aims to create sustainable neighbourhoods, reduce carbon emissions, and protect and enhance the city's natural spaces. Its transformation strategy has a vision of providing an "exceptional city centre that is for all, a place for people to live, work, visit and play". "Finance must support services to create sustainable plans and proposals to deliver services within an affordable financial envelope," said Mr Lloyd-Bithell. "Finance must provide reports and effective challenge to hold service managers to account to ensure services do not overspend their agreed budgets." The Liberal Democrats' Edinburgh council group leader Ed Thornley said the state of the city finances "show there is a titanic gulf between what the SNP have provided and what councils say they actually need to maintain basic local functions". Ed Thornley (Image: Lib Dems) He said: "Local authorities have had a raw deal from the SNP over many years and that has had a knock-on impact on the provision of vital local functions. "The SNP have demanded councils do more with less. As a result, we have ended up with school cuts, bin strikes and shortages of elderly care packages. "Local government deserves long-term central government funding deals which adequately meet its needs and provide locally delivered public services. That is what people rightly expect.' The Scottish Government said individual local authorities are responsible for deciding the level of their affordable borrowing, having regard to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's Prudential Code, which has been given legislative backing. They said that it was for each local authority to have "effective arrangements" in place to ensure that capital expenditure and investment plans are "affordable and proportionate and that all external borrowing and other long-term liabilities are within prudent and sustainable levels". A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'In 2025-26, City of Edinburgh Council will receive over £1 billion to support day to day services, which equates to an extra £60 million or an additional 5.9% compared to 2024-25. "Local authorities are required by law to ensure borrowing is affordable, prudent and sustainable. Regulations require a local authority to set an authorised limit for external debt." Edinburgh council's finance and resource convener Mandy Watt accepted that savings were needed and more revenues were required and said: "While Edinburgh has a long track record of strong financial management and delivering a balanced budget year after year, the challenges are increasing."
