​​Seeking fair funding for our Festivals - Cammy Day

Edinburgh City Council leader Cammy Day at the City Chambers

Our world-renowned festivals attract huge talent, with the Fringe alone listing a record 3919 productions this year. It’s great to see that audience numbers have remained high, bringing in £2.7 billion worth of visitor spend each year, creating and sustaining 37,000 jobs.

The ongoing health and success of our festivals also underlines just how important culture is to our residents, as well as our visitors, reinforcing Edinburgh’s - and Scotland’s – reputation on the world stage. That’s exactly why I’m calling on the Scottish Government to urgently set out their plans for long-term investment in our culture sector.

Contrary to popular belief, visitor spend doesn’t directly come back to the council – quite the opposite, in fact. There are significant costs of managing the extra demands tourism place on the city, particularly during peak periods, from pressure on accommodation to street cleaning and public safety.

Festival performers bring a massive boost the Edinburgh economy. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

That’s why, as the lowest funded council in Scotland per capita, we’ve long called for the ability to raise extra income to reinvest in our city and I’m pleased that we’ll soon be able to introduce a visitor levy in Edinburgh.

The scheme will ask accommodation providers to administer a percentage charge on the cost of overnight accommodation up to a maximum stay of seven nights. We believe this is a fair price to pay and will generate tens of millions of pounds a year for us to reinvest in sustainable transport, accommodation, infrastructure and in our public spaces.

Keeping Edinburgh Moving

I’d like to welcome my colleague, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, to his new role leading the Transport and Environment Committee. This is a huge remit that touches on every part of the city, from roads to active travel and waste management to action on climate change.

Stephen is more than ready to take on this challenge and build on the hard work of his predecessor Scott Arthur, our new MP for Edinburgh South West.

I’m sure Stephen will have been pleased to read the recent LEAMS cleanliness scores, published by Keep Scotland Beautiful, which showed Edinburgh as the best performing and ‘cleanest’ city in Scotland, a far cry from two years ago when we were dubbed ‘Scotland’s dirtiest council’.

I’d also like to congratulate Susan Deacon in her new role as chair of Lothian Buses. Susan brings with her a wealth of experience and I know is keen to ensure our biggest ALEO continues to provide a great service for our residents.