Prolonged closure of Princes Street 'unacceptable' says councillor as he calls for root and branch review of emergency response plans
‘Edinburgh cannot afford to see its principal street closed for weeks at a time because of a single incident’ - Cllr Kevin Lang
Edinburgh needs a root-and-branch review of its emergency response plans to prevent any repeat of the prolonged closure of Princes Street following the July 9 fire in the former Debenhams store, a senior councillor has said.
Lib Dem transport spokesman Kevin Lang said it was "unacceptable" that a fire in a single building had led to weeks of disruption on Edinburgh's principal street during the busiest period of the year, with the city welcoming many hundreds of thousands of visitors for the summer festivals.
He said the closure - which is expected to last until nearly the end of August - had exposed serious weaknesses in the Capital's civil contingency and business continuity planning,
And he added: "It is difficult to imagine Oxford Street in London, the Champs-Élysées in Paris or Broadway in New York remaining closed for this length of time in similar circumstances."
The closure of Princes Street has meant the suspension of tram services between the city centre and Newhaven, with businesses saying they have been badly hit. And buses are being diverted along George Street, leading to congestion and delays.
Cllr Lang is tabling a motion to this month's meeting of Edinburgh council, calling for a full review of the city's emergency response and business continuity arrangements. the situation is expected to worsen once the Festival and Fringe get under way this weekend.
He said: "It is incredible to me that a single fire in one building has resulted in a major section of Princes Street being closed for four weeks. There is still no certainty over when it will fully reopen.
“The huge disruption has come at the height of the tourist season, when Edinburgh is hosting visitors from across the world for its festivals.”
Cllr Lang was working in senior management at Scotland's airports at the time of the 2007 terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport and said he had seen the importance of having robust contingency plans in place to ensure essential services recovered as quickly as possible.
"Within 24 hours of a jeep packed with explosives being driven into the terminal building, the airport had safely reopened. At Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, innovative solutions were also found to keep operations running despite immediate national security restrictions.
"The events of the past few weeks have shown a massive vulnerability in how our city can deal with major incidents. Once the site is made safe and Princes Street re-opened, the council must undertake a comprehensive review of the civil contingency and business continuity plans.
“That review should be thorough and involve all the key organisations with a role in managing the city centre so that we are better prepared for future emergencies.
"Edinburgh cannot afford to see its principal street closed for weeks at a time because of a single incident. We must learn the lessons from this disruption and ensure the city is far more resilient in future. Scotland’s Capital needs to be much better than this.”
Engineers are currently working to secure the Princes Street facade of the former Debenhams store and preserve as much of the building as possible.
The motion Cllr Lang is tabling says the response to the Princes Street fire has shown "a critical and unacceptable vulnerability and exposure for the city which must be addressed to minimise the chances of such disruption arising again in the future".
And it requests that, "once the priority work to reopen Princes Street is complete, officers initiate a comprehensive review of the business continuity plans and civil contingency arrangements for Princes Street and its surrounding areas".
Council leader Jane Meagher said: “At a time when we and our partners are working as hard as we can to reopen Princes Street and keep the city moving – this intervention, along with the comparisons drawn to other events and cities, are fundamentally unhelpful. I would expect better from a long-serving councillor who understands the importance of safeguarding the public.
“These comments over-simplify an extremely complex engineering project, the overriding priority of which is keeping the public safe.
“Once works have concluded, and Princes Street has returned to normal, we will of course look to see what lessons can be learned and areas that can be improved. However, our focus now rightly remains on the task at hand, which is ensuring that Princes Street is reopened as soon as it’s safe to do so.”