Letter: Virgin hotel would add to Old Town locals' woes

ONE Evening News reader has their say on proposals by Richard Branson to build his first UK at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.

Your report about the Virgin hotel proposed for the India Buildings site is deeply troubling (News, February 1).

Richard Branson’s claim that ‘the people of Edinburgh have been so great in welcoming us to their great city’ is hard to credit.

India Buildings on Victoria Street - the site of the new Virgin Hotel in Edinburgh. Picture: Toby Williams

This unsettling mix of flattery and wishful thinking is no doubt part of a global billionaire’s daily parlance but I would dearly like to know what ‘people’ he’s talking about; certainly not any of my Old Town neighbours whose desire to welcome more and more visitors to the city is wearing decidedly thin.

But surely that statement was topped by Virgin CEO Raul Leal’s claim that the development was ‘less about the brand and more about building local community’.

Does he think that yet more events, live music and hotel beds are likely to help to do that? No, I think Raul was really talking about building shoals of consumers, a transient community that forms the core of Virgin’s business, and one that has now come to dominate the make up of the Old Town. His boss knows better: ‘Edinburgh is an iconic city’, he says; ‘a top travel destination’, ‘a natural choice’ – ripe for investment and profiteering.

IN PICTURES: Here’s how the Edinburgh Virgin Hotel could look

India Buildings on Victoria Street - the site of the new Virgin Hotel in Edinburgh. Picture: Toby Williams

Branson and Leal indulged in the stock practice developers have of writing themselves into the city’s story. Establishing local connections helps boost the credentials of investors and makes them seem more neighbourly. Richard Branson’s granny was born in Inverleith Row and great grandpa was a minister in Goldenacre.

Finally, the good news about the economic boost and job creation. Let’s face it, even the dumbest project perpetrated on this site would be capable of generating the level of economic benefit Cllr Gavin Barrie refers to.

What he completely ignores is the high social and environment costs of the unrestrained tourism sector which, by coincidence, are highlighted over the page in the same edition of the Evening News: ‘I’m really concerned that we may kill the goose that lays the golden egg in this city’ says Cllr Mowat. That’s doesn’t sound like the ‘huge coup for Edinburgh’ that Cllr Barrie is boasting about.

What’s troubling is that the city of Edinburgh is deeply divided between the interests of investors and its citizens; and the city’s political representatives should seek to serve the whole city better.

The city councillors are the rabbits caught in the headlights that Branson talks about but for a different reason: they are blinded by the prospect of ­inward investment at any cost without a thought for the long term future of the city. It’s high time we had a serious public debate in Edinburgh about who the city is for and where its long term future lies.

Sean Bradley, Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust, Grassmarket.