Edinburgh's Haymarket Terrace roadworks: Shops can expect as much help from Edinburgh Council as those in Roseburn (basically none) – John McLellan

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Eastbound road closure is set to last another seven months with shops obscured by barriers and fencing

You wouldn’t need ChatGPT to write Edinburgh’s most predictable story for months*, that Haymarket Terrace businesses are being hammered by the cycleway project, with one report of a 30 per cent drop in takings. Trading conditions are hard enough as it is, but with the eastbound road closure set to last another seven months, possibly more, and shops obscured by barriers and fencing throughout, no wonder owners fear they won’t survive to see any benefit.

Just like their colleagues down the road at Roseburn, all the city council has to offer are warm words, the damage to their livelihoods not factored into the £20m cost, with Labour transport convener Scott Arthur saying the obvious, that disruption should be “kept to an absolute minimum” and he will discuss possible council support. Brazenly, he tried to give the impression the project is nothing to do with him, claiming he “inherited this project from the last administration”, conveniently failing to mention he was a member.

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Sadly, meetings are about all traders can expect, and their Roseburn counterparts will confirm council intervention amounts to the square root of hee-haw and a couple of “open for business” signs because Councillor Arthur’s party helped veto real financial assistance. He must think the shop owners’ heads button up the back.

Haymarket Terrace is closed eastbound during the construction of the new cross-city cycle routeHaymarket Terrace is closed eastbound during the construction of the new cross-city cycle route
Haymarket Terrace is closed eastbound during the construction of the new cross-city cycle route

*I did ask ChatGPT to write an article, and it did a reasonable job for an AI chatbot. But I couldn’t trace “Hayley Johnson” who apparently runs a popular café on Haymarket Terrace, so it has either found or created you.

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