Edinburgh's Princes Street 'an embarrassment' and council masterplan 'offers no vision'

They say the famous street has been allowed to fall into “poor condition” and they slate the city council’s masterplan for Princes Street for failing to put forward any vision.

The statement, from the New Town & Broughton, Old Town, and West End community councils, says Princes Street is “urgently in need of a plan for ongoing regeneration and restoration”.

The community councils say the masterplan contains no coherent idea of what Princes Street should look like in future | PA

It continues: “Our members are aware that Princes Street has fallen into poor condition. For many years there has been no clear and agreed view for its future. The street has become an embarrassment for residents and visitors alike.”

But in response to the council’s consultation on the “Princes Street and Waverley Valley draft strategy”, the statement says: “The draft strategy fails to address the needs of the street. Indeed, we contend that it contains no vision, and hence fails to qualify as a strategy.”

The strategy document, published last year, sets out how the council wants to improve the famous street and offers planning guidance for future developments.

It proposes increased pedestrian zones, high quality benches, new access ramps into Princes Street Gardens and an upgrade for the Ross bandstand, as well as a foot bridge across the Waverley Valley and tree-planting on the roof of Waverley Market.

Before the consultation was launched, Green councillors successfully pushed for the idea of a protected cycleway on Princes Street to be added to the issues people were asked about.

The community councils say they believe the priority should be the regeneration and protection of Princes Street.

“Any real strategy should lay out a developed and coherent idea of what Princes Street could and should look like in the future, grounded in a view about what purpose or purposes it should fulfil within the city centre.

“Instead, we find nothing more than a shopping list of generic urban planning measures. There is nothing specific to the location of Princes Street and its requirements. Suggestions in the document are minor, conventional and - apart from the cycle lane proposals - uncontroversial.

“No real choices are put forward. There is no meaningful prioritisation of the competing demands of retail and hotels, or heritage and development, vibrancy and the natural environment, transport and tourism, pedestrian and cycling space, through traffic and destination traffic, buses and trams etc. etc.

“The Draft Strategy lacks any ambition for Princes Street to restore its prestige, build on its heritage and pursue developments that embody the highest standards of urban design.

“We need a serious consideration of what Princes Street should be, rather than what is needed to fit it into other existing city-wide plans, especially when these invariably involve lower standards.”

The statement claims the masterplan also lacks priorities and timescales. “We call for a new version than gives due priority to preserving, protecting and enhancing the built heritage of Princes Street. Once this is in place, other aspects can be taken forward.”

The consultation on the masterplan close on Friday, February 21.