Inspired prankster leaves capital a net loser

Published on Friday 8 February 2008 21:29

THE launch of a flagship website for Scotland's capital city has been overshadowed by an apparent blunder.

The controversial "inspiring capital" slogan was devised to promote Edinburgh, but instead it is benefiting East Lothian Council.

A prankster has hijacked the domain name and is diverting any visitors to www.inspiringcapital.co.uk to the rival authority's website.

It was hoped the site would become one of the main tools to attract visitors to the city, as well as generating investment and helping firms recruit staff. However, instead of finding out what Edinburgh has to offer, anyone logging on is told about a new book on Rosslyn Chapel, an "exciting array" of shows at Musselburgh's Brunton Theatre and East Lothian's stop-smoking classes.

Ironically, East Lothian Council was one of more than 150 organisations to join forces to get the new website, which promotes the entire "Edinburgh city region", off the ground.

The City of Edinburgh Council failed to register either www.inspiringcapital.com or www.inspiringcapital.co.uk before the official slogan was unveiled almost three years ago. Shortly after its launch, it emerged anyone logging on to www.inspiringcapital.com was being met with a tirade of abuse aimed at senior Edinburgh councillors. It had been registered by the satirical website www.edinburghsucks.com on the day the new image was unveiled.

The man behind the latest move is Alan Clydesdale, the boss of a cleaning company in Dirleton, East Lothian. He said he had bought the domain name in May 2005 because the council had been "stupid enough" to forget to do so. He has previously used the site to divert visitors to those run by Hearts and Hibs.

He said: "I've put the divert to East Lothian on for a laugh, although I wouldn't go as far as diverting anyone on to Glasgow's website."

A spokeswoman for the City of Edinburgh Council said: "This address will not link to the new website because it is not the correct address. The site can be accessed directly at www.edinburgh-inspiringcapital.com and it was important to include Edinburgh so that people from anywhere in the world would associate it with the city."

Senior figures in the new council's Liberal Democrat-SNP administration have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the "inspiring capital" brand, ordering a review of the 500,000-a-year project. Councillors are said to be bitterly divided on whether such investment should continue.