Tommy Sheppard makes a stand at council tram disruption

STAND comedy club boss Tommy Sheppard has found himself involved in a new spat - after Edinburgh City Council started a new wave of tramworks on one of the city’s main thoroughfares just weeks before the start of the Fringe.

The veteran promoter has launched a major broadside against the council, despite being in partnership with the authority over its flagship Assembly Rooms venue, for closing off most of York Place to traffic and digging up the majority of the street this month.

He has branded the council, which has warned of 18 months of disruption on York Place, “outrageous” for the extent of the roadworks outside his long-running venue. The comedy promoter has warned that the move to start work on York Place just before shows get underway has created a “dreadful advert for the city”.

A huge crater has been created outside his Stand Comedy Club and he is complaining that festivalgoers face “a half-mile walk through a building site” to get to the venue.

However Steve Cardownie, the city’s festivals and events champion, said it was more important for the city that the tram project was finished early than the needs of “a successful, but small, Fringe venue.”

Mr Sheppard had already won permission from the council to bring in the Famous Spiegeltent to part of George Street, outside the Assembly Rooms building he has taken over.

However he said: “It is outrageous what they have done to York Place just before the festival. I pleaded with them to wait until September to get this work underway but they’ve not listened and just gone ahead with it. There is a huge crater outside the club now.

“I am concerned about how it will affect our own customers who now have a half-mile way through a building site to get here, but the big issue is the impression it creates when the Fringe is getting underway. It is a dreadful advert for the city.”

Cllr Cardownie, who is also the deputy council leader, said: “The priority with the tram project is simply to get it finished as soon as possible.

“I don’t think the people of Edinburgh would forgive us if we brought this work to a halt for a month just because it happens to be outside a successful, but small, Fringe venue.

“I’m sure Tommy Sheppard is smart enough to come up with innovative ways to attract customers inside his venue over the next few weeks.”

The council handed Mr Sheppard the contract to stage shows at the Assembly Rooms after a bitter fall-out with rival promoter William Burdett-Coutts, who launched a campaign against a £10 million revamp of the building, part of which has been leased out to Jamie Oliver for one his Italian restaurant outlets.

Mr Sheppard has joined forces with David Bates, the founder of the Famous Spiegeltent venue, to bring the iconic venue into the middle of George Street, to create what he claims will be a “calm, leafy oasis” at the heart of the Fringe.