George Street: 'Elephant in the room' fears over lack of £35m funding as Edinburgh council votes

The design of a £35 million upgrade of one of Edinburgh’s key streets has been approved by city councillors despite misgivings from opposition parties about the cost and lack of funding.

A council committee agreed on Thursday to progress the scheme to remove parking and most traffic from George Street in the centre of the New Town, with construction scheduled to start in two years’ time and finish in 2030.

A visualisation of the full George Street upgrade option | City of Edinburgh Council

However, a Conservative councillor said the lack of secured funding for the project was the “elephant in the room” and called for the existing street layout to be properly maintained instead, using parking charge income.

The council plans to pay for the scheme using external funding, such as from the city’s visitor levy that starts next year, and developers’ contributions. Officials said it was unusual for funding for such projects to be in place before they received final approval.

The "reduced design" option, costing £20.3 million | City of Edinburgh Council

City centre Conservative councillor Joanna Mowat said: “We have been talking about George Street for nearly 11 years. The elephant in the room is that we still don’t have any money and are reliant on applying to third parties and having this money granted to us before we can put a single shovel in the ground.

‘Be realistic’

“All we have is a lot of very expensively-sourced designs, which are very pretty on the page, but without that money are no closer to being completed.

“Everyone is heartily fed up, because those people who live and work on George Street and are running businesses would just like to see something get done.”

The "basic design" option, costing £17.4 million | City of Edinburgh Council

Ms Mowat proposed instead the £3.2m annual parking revenue from the street be used to pay for the £10.5m “maintenance” option in the plans to bring it up to standard.

She told the transport and environment committee: “We should be realistic. That’s what we can afford.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Hal Osler said “we are deeply concerned about the level of funding”, questioning whether it was worth spending £35m on the scheme.

The "above ground design" option, costing £13.5 million | City of Edinburgh Council

But Jamie Robertson, the council’s strategic transport planning and delivery manager, said: “It’s quite rare to have funding in advance of obtaining statutory consent, and we are in the development pipeline with George Street.

Price tag reduced

“I totally hear the noise around ‘you do not have funding for this project’, but we are not unique in this. If you ask me the same question in six months’ time, I’m pretty sure I’ll have much more clarity.”

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Mr Robertson said progressing the full scheme increased the likelihood of securing external funding.

Stephen Jenkinson, the committee’s Labour convener, said: “The project is rooted in making the area safer, more sustainable and accessible for all. The wider potential improvements are vast, from benefits to local residents and businesses to enhancing Edinburgh as a visitor destination. We’re on our way to delivering a bold new vision for George Street.”

Mr Jenkinson said last week he expected the cost of the plans to fall further since “more detailed and accurate costings” had seen the price tag reduced from £39.5m in September last year.

He said a further reduction was anticipated from the bill for moving underground pipes and cables shrinking as utility companies had produced high estimates for such work elsewhere in the city.