‘I’m pleased we won’t have more disruption’

We’ve had more than two years of disruption, on and off, and were losing something like £2,000 a week.

We had two shops before the tramworks started and actually had to close one of them due to the downturn in trade.

Around a third of our custom at West Maitland Street comes from passing trade and that all but dried up because there was so much work happening on our doorstep and we found that pedestrians were actually being rerouted away from the street.

For other businesses in the area, like bars and restaurants, they rely much more on passing trade and were affected even more. It’s maybe a selfish thing, but I am just really pleased that we are not going to have any more of this disruption.

So many businesses were worried about the prospect of more tramworks and whether they would survive or not.

Despite suffering all the loss in business we were turned down for the £4,000 compensation package and we found out we were just about the only business in the area not to get anything.

I’ve always been against the trams and could never understand the benefits it would bring for Edinburgh, which already has a fantastic bus service. Even the route was crazy as it totally missed out places like Edinburgh Zoo in favour of Murrayfield to cater for a handful of big events every year.

We may well see some benefit from the tram stopping at Haymarket, but I’m not convinced people will use it rather than the bus, so I’m not at all convinced we’ll see any extra footfall. Although I would rather have seen the whole thing scrapped, this is definitely the next best option.

l Grant McKeeman runs Copymade in West Maitland Street, at the west end.