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Adult learners accuse
council of “tokenism”
By PHYLLIS STEPHENTOURISM EXPERT Pete Irvine said
Edinburgh can handle a tourist tax like
many other major European destinations.
The Scotland the Best author is firmly in
favour of the proposed Visitors’ Levy.
He said: “I’m a tourist and I advocate for
tourists and visitors and I know that
mostly they would not complain.
“Anyone that travels knows that
nowadays there are often tourist taxes- not everywhere but certainly in cities
like Amsterdam, Barcelona, or Dublin -
you expect it. I gave evidence about
tourist tax to a Select Committee in The
Scottish Parliament a couple of years ago,
and while it may not be right for
everywhere in Scotland it is definitely
right for Edinburgh.
“Let’s face it all these expensive hotels
in Edinburgh if you add a couple of quid
then nobody would really notice. The
price of that room changes every day - it’s
called dynamic pricing which has been
with us for years now.”
Irvine is not alone. Edinburgh has been
aiming to be the first city to introduce
the new tourism levy for at least the last
decade.
The possibility of extra income for the
council from over night stays have been
mooted by various administrations and
progressed with discussion at several
council committees during that time, as
well as an engagement exercise with the
public which has just concluded.
The council has agreed to instigate a
formal consultation process whenever
the government legislation reaches the
appropriate stage hopefully by August
this year.
The council estimates that it will cost
around £250,000 to set up the scheme
and afterwards around £500,000 to run it
each year, but this will be paid for from
the revenues raised. MSPs are expected
to vote on the proposed tax in June.
New Fringe hub leads
to snub for tenants
By PHYLLIS STEPHEN
MORE THAN 1,000 ADULT LEARNERS are
the losers after being made “homeless” as
councillors agreed to hand over the city’s only
adult learning centre to the Edinburgh Festival
Fringe Society (EFFS).
The Adult Learners’ Forum accused the city
council of “tokenism” engagement with learners
who attended 85 classes each week at the South
Bridge Resource Centre in Infirmary Street and
who have been turfed out without any clear
indication of where they will be housed.
The council has agreed a 99-year lease with
EFFS which will spend £7 million of a so-called
“levelling up” award by the UK Government
funding to refurbish the building - which is
now in need of considerable repair - to create a
“year round Fringe community hub”.
The Forum said after a council meeting when
the details of the lease were approved, that no
meaningful engagement has been carried out
in the last year by the council, and they believe
that “no decision could or should have been
taken at the meeting” when the future of the
city’s only adult learning centre was decided.
Only Canongate Youth will have guaranteed
space which will be sublet by EFFS. Councillors
were told in a report that the “majority of
groups and classes using the building suitable
alternative locations have been identified and
that engagement has commenced to implement
the proposed moves”.
The Forum said: “This is completely at odds
with our experience of this process and we are
baffled as to how council officers can have
identified locations which are ‘suitable’ if they
have not taken the time to find out what the
learners need from those locations.
“Any engagement that has been undertaken
has been instigated by the Adult Learners
themselves. Any Council activity has been very
last minute and tokenistic.
“We are all fully aware that as the building
has been allowed to deteriorate over the years it
now needs millions spent on it to make it safe
and fit for purpose. We are also fully aware that
CEC is in a dire financial position and
therefore not in a position to renovate South
Bridge.
“The Festival Fringe Society is in a position
to carry out renovations having obtained
money from the Westminster Levelling Up
fund.”
Shona McCarthy, CEO of the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe Society, said delays meant the
UK Government investment was “now
massively at risk” so immediate action was
needed. She said: “Even though we can’t house
everything in the building, our entire intent is
for this building to be publicly accessible. And
if we get approval to take on the building, I’d
love to be able to work with the adult learners
forum to explore how can we continue to make
that a home for them.”
Cllr Mandy Watt said the council always has
to strike a balance, but that the council does
not have the funds to put the building into a
good condition and had to take a decision on
the future use of the building.
The SNP finance spokesperson, Cllr Lesley
Macinnes, said they did not want to delay the
project, but wanted to reinforce some points
made by current tenants and that they sought
reassurance that every effort would be made to
find suitable accommodation for everyone.
City centre councillor Finlay McFarlane said
that he regretted not having been able to do
more in the last year, and that while the Fringe
taking the building over is a “brilliant
proposal”, the focus now needs to be really“drilling down” and continuing the engagement
work, meet as many needs as possible and
“ensure that no service is dropped as part of
this process”.
He particularly welcomed the creation of a
Changing Places facility outside the building
which will be a unique facility in the city
centre.
A council officer, Peter Watton, apologised to
both the committee and the users of the
building for “what has clearly been poor
communication and poor engagement”.
He did, however, say that moving into new
premises might result in a good outcome and
quoted the scenario ten years ago when youth
group 6VT were being moved out of their
premises.
He said the young people are now very
happy in their new location a decade on.City tax is right
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reporter.co.ukThousands of tourists
may face new taxSouth Bridge Resource CentreAlan SimpsonMartin P McAdam