Furious row over claim Edinburgh open-air meeting ignored Covid restrictions

Transport convener says MSP should have taken greater care

Alex Cole-Hamilton and Lesley Macinnes both addressed the open-air meeting

A ROW has erupted between Capital transport convener Lesley Macinnes and city MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton over an open-air public meeting in the Capital last month.

Up to 1,000 people were estimated to have attended the meeting in Gyle Park, where Councillor Macinnes was booed and jeered over the plans to introduce Scotland’s first Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) in East Craigs and Craigmount.

In a written reply to a question tabled for today’s city council meeting, Councillor Macinnes claimed Mr Cole-Hamilton, who organised the meeting, had failed to ensure appropriate Covid measures were in place.

She said: “Police Scotland have advised that very few control measures were observed as being in place and no efforts appeared to have been made to limit the crowd numbers by the organiser. It was quite the opposite with leaflet drops and promotion on social media to encourage persons to attend.

“Under normal circumstances high attendance would be welcome. However these are extraordinary circumstances and greater care should have been taken by the event organiser.”

Furious Mr Cole-Hamilton insisted he had cleared the event with the police and warned them the crowd could well be larger than the 200 limit for gatherings.

And he said Cllr Macinnes had herself tweeted about the meeting to publicise it.

He said: “This is rank hypocrisy from Lesley Macinness who encouraged people to come to an event that she then complained about in her written answer.

“The meeting was the size it was, partly because of her promotion of it. Over 1,000 people wanted to be heard that night. She may not have liked what they had to say but that is no reason to accuse them of criminality.”

He said when he spoke to the police about the plans, they said a patrol would be sent to the park to support the event and challenge any issues that might cause a problem in infection control terms.

“The police were there for the whole two hours of the event, but did not approach either myself or anyone else with concerns. Social distancing and mask wearing was observed throughout and the police who supported the event seemed content.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton posted similar comments on social media, to which Cllr Macinnes responded, branding them “selective nonsense”.

She rejected a suggestion she had complained to the police. “They contacted senior council officers to express concerns.”

And she continued: “I honoured my commitment to listen despite grave misgivings when I saw size of the crowd, given pandemic conditions.

“I stayed behind to talk/listen to people long after you left the field. Currently working on proposal changes with officers in response to those very real concerns. Time to reflect on your combative tone.”

She said the LTN proposals would go to the transport committee on October 1 for final decision.

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