Edinburgh Sucks! | Council leader has his head in the sand

City Development

Council leader has his head in the sand

By The Basa ⋅ February 23, 2007 ⋅

head in the sand.jpg Roll on May. With the news today that one of the UK’s leading retailers of fine jewellery and silverware, Mappin & Webb, are going to close their doors in George Street. The company which was founded in 1774 and has one of Edinburgh’s best January sales is the latest addition to the mass exodus of retail outlets in George Street.

This of course doesn’t bother our city leader Ewan ‘Rasputin’ Aitken”

But Ewan Aitken, the leader of Edinburgh City Council, insisted George Street was not losing any of its lustre. He said: “I desperately don’t want shops to leave Edinburgh but it’s not like downmarket shops are moving in. We need to get the mix right.”

Get the mix right! I suppose another branch of Wetherspoon’s is what is needed and of course pub chains are not the same as downmarket shops. Maybe Councillor Aitken would like to take a walk along George Street at 1am on a Saturday or Sunday morning or better still book a room at the George Hotel with a street facing room one night and listen to what George Street is becoming.

How can someone who leads a city the size of Edinburgh really think that this is good. This goes even further, the reason these shops are leaving is because the Planning Department within the city together with their big brother the City Development Department are both totally inept at their jobs and are, in the words of Councillor Aitken’s Labour colleage John Reid, not fit for purpose.

We can only hope that some less bent and more scrupulous councillors get elected in May. Let’s throw the bent, lying, incompetent idiots that have been involved in governing the city, from all parties, over the past 20 years out and let the first job of any new administration to have a clean sweep of departmental directors in the Council.

More Info: Fears for ‘Bond Street of North’ as top jeweller is set to leave