Princes Street fire dilemma needs solutions not soundbites - Steve Cardownie

I say this because we have already witnessed some attempts at political points scoring up in the City Chambers, not least from Transport Convener, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson when he stated that if it was up to him, he would knock down the building and get the city moving again.

A populist soundbite if I ever heard one, and one which he walked back from almost as soon as he made it.

His council leader, Jane Meagher, had already taken Conservative Group leader, Iain Whyte to task for suggesting that the proposed pedestrianisation of George Street would be a huge mistake when he said that “This incident shows how heavily Edinburgh relies on Princes Stret for its public transport network and the only remaining resilience is to push buses up onto George Street. If you took it out of the equation there’s no resilience left.”

This prompted the council leader to chastise Cllr Whyte saying that it was “misguided and misinformed” to describe George Steet as pedestrianisation, pointing out that it would still be possible for buses to use George Street in an emergency.

She then went on to deliver another slap on Iain’s wrists saying that “It’s disappointing at a time when we’re doing our utmost to keep the city moving under extremely challenging circumstances, that people view this as an opportunity to score cheap political points.”

Presumably she might have appraised Cllr Jenkinson of her view as to whether his own comments were a meaningful contribution to the ongoing appraisal of the next steps required to resolve the problem. It could be argued that it was attention seeking at best and “misguided and misinformed” at worst.

Meanwhile, outwith this petty political spat, the Edinburgh public are getting on with their lives and are taking measures to find alternative travel solutions to get them around the city.

Visitors too, seem undeterred by the inevitable disruption. I know this because I had cause to spend a few afternoons in Rose Street last week and witnessed the throngs of people making their way to Murrayfield Stadium. First for the rugby game, Fiji v Scotland, and then the two sell out concerts by Luke Combs.

As people walked along the street, they all seemed to be in party mood and a couple of extra miles on their feet was unlikely to dampen their spirits.

However, it needs the political groups on the council to pull together to find a workable solution. The last thing the public needs right now is for the council to degenerate into political disputes about what to do next.

The outcome will obviously be based on sound, technical, engineering advice but alternative solutions might be identified and put forward for consideration, all will have travel consequences, and all will have financial implications which will have to be examined.

As a former councillor I have seen the council operating as one in the interests of the city and this looks like providing another opportunity for it to do so. The answer should be more practical than political so, what the public needs is solutions - not soundbites!