The Gumball Rally in Edinburgh city centre was just one dumball move - Stephen Jardine

The Gumball Rally 3000 roared through Edinburgh last weekend, but Stephen Jardine questions why the city council thinks this fleet of supercars should be admired.

I’m pretty sure if you look up ineptitude in the dictionary, it says ‘see City of Edinburgh Council’. How else can you explain the decision to lay down the red carpet for last weekend’s ridiculous Gumball Rally?

For two days, every village must have been missing an idiot as a bunch of blokes with too much hair product roared around the city centre in their supercars.

We are supposed to be living in a climate emergency and Edinburgh Council have just opened a new section of a tram network to get people out of cars and onto public transport, so why on earth did they give permission for an event that produced gridlock in the city centre and more emissions than Jeremy Clarkson on a driving tour of Australia in a tank?

PIC LISA FERGUSON 10/06/2023 Gumball 3000 Returns to Edinburgh on George Street for the Flag Drop of its 24th Annual Gumball 3000 Rally! (June 10 - 11 EDINBURGH – LONDON – AMSTERDAM – VERBIER – VENICE – BUDAPEST – PORTO MONTENEGRO Superstars come together to participate in the 24th Annual Gumball 3000 Rally and raise money for the Gumball 3000 Foundation (non-pro fi t) to support a variety of youth-based projects in low-income communities. Driving from Edinburgh to Montenegro in just 6 days, the spectacular entry grid of over 100 vehicles includes custom classics to futuristic hypercars - from Bugattis to the Kurupt FM Mobile! Leading the charge is celebrity couple Maximillion Cooper , Founder and host of Gumball 3000 and his Grammy-winning wife, US rapper Eve - lining up alongside a number of Gumball favourites including UK presenters Michael Dapaah & Yung Filly , US rap legend Bun B , UK grime legend Dizzee Rascal and Grammy-winning US producer Dallas Austin . A host of superstar rookie Gumballers also join the lineup, including comedians and in fl uencers from BBC’s People Just do Nothing, Kurupt FM’s MC Grindah and DJ Beats , alongside Harry Pinero , Alhan Gençay and many more names to be announced! Social media and eSports superstars will join in fl uencers DailyDrivenExotics , Shmee150 , Mat Armstrong , Mark McCann , Pitstop Podcast & more to share the adventure through their YouTube, TikTok and Instagram channels to over 400m combined followers - making it easy to follow the action! Gumball celebrations kick off in Edinburgh on Saturday 10 June for Gumballers and fans with a spectacular car display on the famous George Street. That evening, Edinburgh Castle will play host to the of fi cial welcome party for Gumballers, with entrants raising money for charity with the chance to start the rally from pole position! A special guest will wave the start fl ag on S

The answer from the City Chambers will be the usual mantra about it attracting people to Edinburgh. Well not last weekend it didn’t.

“I nearly called the police first thing,” a shop assistant on George Street told me last Saturday. “I was sure someone was going to get knocked down. Why are they here?”. Good question. She went on to tell me nearly every shopper had complained about the cacophony and many were heading home early to escape it.

As cars raced up and down George Street, the police were nowhere to be seen. While happy to slap speeding fines on local people doing 32 mph in a 30 mph zone, they seemed impervious to the meatheads doing twice that speed in the city centre. In this day and age this event should simply not exist.

Despite pretending to be about fundraising for the underprivileged, it’s real purpose is to allow nepo babies to flaunt wealth and punch an even bigger hole in the environment. The event’s website doesn’t even have a Green Policy or any attempt to explain offsetting the carbon impact. At least they are

flagrant and honest in their level of irresponsibility.

Edinburgh City Council don’t have that excuse. Instead they have an 80 page climate strategy on their website. Funnily enough it doesn’t mention the Gumball Rally.

If driving fast while pretending not to is how they want to live their lives, that’s up to them but Edinburgh City Council should have told the boys to take their toys somewhere else. Quite apart from the road safety concerns and the emissions impact on a warm weekend, the event sends out the

message that roaring around aggressively in big petrol cars is something to be admired. You can’t endorse that and at the same time tell everyone to stop driving and start using public transport.

Above all that, the city centre is a World Heritage Site, a special place protected and nurtured due to it’s fragility and special place in world history. As part of that, George Street will soon be converted to a pedestrianised space. Work will begin next year and see 240 parking bays removed and replaced by pavements, seating and cycle lanes. Plus a low emissions zone will be introduced next year.

Presumably all that means this is the last time Edinburgh will host the Dumball Rally. If not, it certainly should be.