Holyrood bar's £25k facelift brings in just £1 extra per day

THE red leather armchairs, matching sofa and new lighting were meant to attract more custom from the nation's lawmakers ready to quench their thirsts after a hard day at Holyrood.

But the 25,000 makeover of the MSPs' bar at the Scottish Parliament has been a total failure, increasing business by a paltry 1 per day.

The new furniture, which also included blinds and rugs, was intended to create more of a "gentlemen's club" atmosphere.

But the income from the bar in the five months since the refurbishment totalled 10,859 - just 169 more than for the same period the previous year.

And the figures for the adjoining MSP-only restaurant show an even worse picture - a fall in income of nearly 12,000.

Today, one MSP said the mistake had been in not including a proper bar in the original design of the parliament.

Tory Alex Johnstone claimed having a bar as part of the restaurant was never going to work.

He said: "The attempts to make the place more attractive to members were simply too late. The design of the facilities was inappropriate at the outset and various reviews have done nothing to improve the situation.

"A long time ago, when the facilities were being discussed, there was an opportunity to provide something which would have been attractive and might have been used.

"But instead a decision was made deliberately to go in a different direction and that guaranteed people wanting to use a bar would go outside.

"Instead of being a cost to the parliament, it could have been franchised and we could have charged rent. But these opportunities are now past."

Liberal Democrat MSP Donald Gorrie said the latest income figures showed the new furniture for the bar was "not a good business decision".

And he added: "I don't think it works as a bar - no-one really regards it as such. It's just an area people walk through."

He said if parliament bosses wanted to make a success of the bar they had to promote it better, but without spending vast sums of money.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said part of the problem was the MSP-only policy for the restaurant. All pass-holders in the parliament can use the bar, but on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, when parliament is sitting, the restaurant is exclusively for MSPs and their guests.

Ms MacDonald said: "It won't show a return on expenditure until there are sensible and fair rules about the use of the facilities.

"I can understand why MSPs feel they have to have somewhere they can have a meal purely among themselves as MSPs, but there are ways the dining room could accommodate that."

She suggested four or five tables at one end of the restaurant could be reserved for MSPs and the politicians could be given first call on the rest of the tables, but otherwise they would be available for staff and journalists.

MSPs can get a three-course meal at their exclusive eatery for just over a fiver.

And last month, SNP MSP Kenny MacAskill confirmed on behalf of the parliament's cross-party corporate body the subsidy for the restaurant was expected to continue at 80,000 a year.

A parliament spokesman said: "The purpose of the refurbishment was to give the bar a less formal feel. Feedback from those using the facility has been positive."