Edinburgh statues: Council leader Cammy Day demands return of plaque removed from Melville monument

Council has reported removal of Henry Dundas plaque to police and says campaigners should pay for any damage to Melville monument

City council chiefs have demanded the return of the controversial plaque removed from the Melville monument in St Andrew Square in the row over Henry Dundas’s links to slavery.

The plaque accused Dundas, the powerful 18th century Scottish politician who became the first Viscount Melville, of being “instrumental in deferring the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade”. It was removed around September 18 by an unknown member of the Melville Monument Committee (MMC), a group that includes Dundas descendants, which claims the A3 brass plate gave a “grotesquely inaccurate version of history”.

At a meeting of Edinburgh City Council, City Centre ward SNP councillor Finlay McFarlane asked for an update on “the shocking removal of the interpretation plaque on the Melville monument that explained Henry Dundas’s links to slavery” and whether the council had any information on the current whereabouts of the plaque.

The plaque removed from the Melville monument in St Andrew Square said Henry Dundas was “instrumental in deferring the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade”. Picture: Lisa Ferguson.

Council leader Cammy Day said he shared Cllr McFarlane’s concern about the plaque’s removal. And he continued: “We have reported this matter to Police Scotland and just this week we have sent a legal letter to Viscount Melville asking for the plaque to be returned, replaced and that any damage to the structure is paid for by him and his group. I am actively on this.”

Cllr Day said he had also met Irene Mosota, chair of the independent Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review Implementation Group. “She is appalled by this behaviour and she will be joining us to raise it with Viscount Melville.”

The MMC claimed its action was in line with planning permission it secured from the council earlier this year for removal of the plaque. A councillor said at the time the committee was unable to refuse the application as there were “no valid planning reasons” to do so and the wording of the plaque could not be considered. And it was said the permission of the owners of the buildings around St Andrew Square – who have ownership of the monument – would be required before it could be taken down.

But the MMC said it had contacted the owners to give them an opportunity to object to the removal and none had done so. MMC founder Viscount Bobby Melville, a Henry Dundas descendant, said: "The removal of the plaque is a historic development and momentous occasion in a five-year saga. The plaque represented a grotesquely inaccurate version of history that had no place on the monument or in a public square."