Edinburgh council spent less than £1,000 on coronation of King Charles III, according to new figures

Greens claim it could have been a lot more if they had not been asking questions

Edinburgh city council spent less than £1,000 to mark the coronation of King Charles III, according to official figures.

In response to a freedom of information request, the council said a total of £665.41 was spent by "education and library settings" on materials to celebrate the coronation. And the cost of Lord Provost Robert Aldridge attending the coronation in Westminster Abbey was his return flight at £169.49.

The £35,000 cost of showing the coronation ceremony on a big screen in Princes Street Gardens was met by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the coronation on May 6. Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

Green councillor Alys Mumford – who previously highlighted the costs associated with Operation Unicorn – the events which followed the Queen's death last year – welcomed the low level of spending by the council. But she said it would probably have been a lot more if her party had not been asking questions in advance on the cost.

She said: "I think they would have spent a lot more if we hadn't been there, asking questions about Operation Unicorn. Because people were asking questions in advance of the coronation, they were less up for spending money than they might have otherwise been. I think they knew it would not be popular for them to spend a lot of money on it in a cost of living crisis. And I think the fact we gave so much scrutiny is why we’ve not seen more spending.”

Finance convener Mandy Watt said: “The council always tries to get best value from our spending. We feel the majority of people in the city would be very pleased the Lord Provost had been invited to represent us at the coronation and delighted he as able to do so in such a cost-effective way.”

The city council had to fork out more than £600,000 for events in Edinburgh following the death of the Queen in September, but most of it was reclaimed from the UK Treasury through the Scottish Government, apart from £42,000 of parking income lost due to street closures. Council staff were involved in stewarding, traffic management, public safety and crowd management, cleansing and communications as the Queen's coffin was brought to the Capital for three days and lay at rest in St Giles Cathedral so people could pay their respects. There was also a ceremony for the proclamation of King Charles III. The council established an incident control centre to oversee events and deployed officers to the multi-agency control centre at Fettes, which included Scottish Government, Police Scotland and other partner agencies. And the council also erected a giant screen in Holyrood Park to show the state funeral in London.