City police chief: Help me decide which crimes officers should stop investigating
Plus: Bid to use 'tourist tax' cash for housebuilding; Hearts hotel plan; and another shiver for the whisky industry
Police chief warns officers may stop attending calls about vandalism and minor traffic offences
Edinburgh’s police commander has warned the city can expect a ‘reduced service’ next year in the face of a squeeze on public sector spending.
Chief Superintendent Sean Scott said that officers may need to stop attending less serious incidents such as low level vandalism and minor road traffic offences.
The city has seen the number of officers drop by more than 5% over the last three years with a further fall expected in the coming months due to the number of retirements and an ongoing recruitment freeze.
Officers are being taken off training and other backroom duties to support front line colleagues during the busy festive season.
The context: The Scottish Government will announce its budget for the police and other public services on 19 December with Finance Secretary Shona Robison warning the public sector workforce will have to shrink. The new Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell has said she needs £128 million to maintain “a visible, accessible and proactive front line.”
Selling off buildings: Stations will shut across the country with Balerno among those identified for closure as the force looks increasingly to share accommodation with other public services. The police headquarters at Fettes is also due to be sold.
What to stop doing? Chief Supt Scott asked city councillors, at a meeting of the local authority’s culture and communities committee, what duties his officers should stop carrying out, the BBC Local Democracry Reporter Service reports. “What is palatable to the public for us then not to be able to attend? We’re talking about lower level vandalisms, we’re talking about damage to cars, lower level road traffic offences where there’s no injuries,” he asked.
The Scottish Government says: The police in Scotland remain better resourced than their counterparts in England and Wales with more officers per capita and better paid officers “at every level”.
YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING
HOUSEBUILDERS FLIP TO STUDENT FLATS: Investors are switching from building homes on land where they have planning permission in the Capital to pursuing student flats projects. The conservation charity the Cockburn Association has raised concerns about the impact this will have on the city’s affordable housing crisis. Higher mortgage rates and regulations including affordable housing quotas and rent controls are making building to sell or rent less attractive compared to the more certain returns from purpose built student accommodation rents.
MAROON DREAMS: Hearts have unveiled plans for a 25-bedroom hotel and events space within the main stand at Tynecastle Park, creating the UK’s first club-owned and operated hotel inside a football stadium. Hearts benefactor Ann Budge described the plan as the football clubs’s “boldest venture”, adding: “As well as our vast supporter base both in the local area and from further afield, we hope to attract international visitors and guests from around the UK looking for high quality, contemporary accommodation as part of an Edinburgh city break. It’s not just a hotel for football fans.”
YOUTH ARTS FEARS: Community arts groups based in the South Bridge Resource and Education Centre fear they will be forced to close under plans for the Fringe to take over the building on Infirmary Street. The youth groups Totally Sound and Reel Youth Media expect to be given notice to leave to make way for the Fringe’s new headquarters. Julian Vaughan, a trustee of the two groups, told The Scotsman he was worried the groups would be unable to find an alternative, sustainable base.
HILLEND GO-AHEAD: The redevelopment of the Midlothian Snowsports Centre as Destination Hillend has been granted planning permission by the local authority. The replacement two-storey centre, designed by Edinburgh architects Smith Scott Mullan Associates, will include accommodation, ski-hire, climbing facilities, a soft play and eating and shopping spaces, eating and retail space, alongside a zipline, an alpine coaster and tubing.
SCHOOL CONCRETE: West Lothian Council says it cannot afford a £35m bill for rebuilding its largest secondary school, St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, following the discovery of RAAC crumbling concrete there. It warns of cuts to other services unless the Scottish Government meets a £15m shortfall in its budget for the work.
Tourism Chiefs face taxing time at city council
Edinburgh’s tourism sector will watch a motion going before this week’s full City of Edinburgh Council meeting with keen interest.
As the introduction of the Visitor Levy, or tourist tax, looms ever closer, a motion from Greens Councilor Ben Parker is calling on the council to seek approval from the Scottish Government to use the monies raised by the new tax to help the city tackle the Housing Emergency by amending the proposed rules.
The drafted Scottish Government legislation enabling the council to impose and collect a visitor levy stipulates that monies raised should be used to support a sustainable visitor economy and improve and enhance the visitor experience. It also says the sector must be involved in the governance of any scheme.
The sector in Edinburgh has expressed pragmatic support for the new tax, provided the funds raised are used to support the sector as contained in the legislation.
Councillor Parker’s motions says that while the council recognises the benefits the industry brings to the city, functional housing is critical to the workforce and adds:
“Therefore, in recognition of the clear dependency relationship between the visitor economy and the need to provide homes for workers, requests that the Council Leader writes to the relevant minister in the Scottish Government to ask that consideration be given to amending the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill to clearly set out the ability for Local Authorities to apportion funds to social housing, should Councils desire. This letter should be copied to members of the Joint Working Group on Sources of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform.”
TABLE TOPPERS: Edinburgh remains high on the list of foodie heavens. Women-only tour company Solo Female Travelers Tours are the latest to come to the culinary party that is Scotland’s Capital, with a ranking that takes into account reviews on TripAdvisor, as well as the number of Michelin star establishments, vegetarian-friendly restaurants and vegan-friendly restaurants in each UK city. Edinburgh received the highest possible score of 10 for the number of restaurants offering local cuisine, prompting the wags at research company Journoresearch to jest (presumably) “there’ll be plenty of spots to try Haggis, the national dish of Scotland.” Only in season, of course…
…LEAGUES AHEAD: Edinburgh’s architectural class has seen it top yet another survey, this time of listed buildings. With 2,125 listed buildings per 100,000 residents, Edinburgh takes the top spot on our ranking. One look at this beautiful city, and it is clear why so many of its buildings are protected say survey researchers Swift Direct blinds. Of the 9,882 listed buildings in this city, over a third are located in Edinburgh’s City Centre.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “Grow your own” could become a reality for more green-fingered people in Edinburgh under a new initiative. City councillors passed a motion calling on officials to explore the possibility of allowing fruit and vegetables to be grown in council owned public spaces deemed “suitable for cultivation”. The councillors expressed concern at access to fresh food during a cost of living crisis whilst noting a shortage of allotments in the city.
THE BUSINESS
CHINESE WHISPERS: The owners of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, whose spiritual home is The Vaults in Leith, have issued a profits warning as demand for Scotch whisky in China slows down. The news comes after drinks giant Diageo, makers of Johnnie Walker, recently acknowledged a dramatic drop in premium international whisky demand in its South American market.
The trading updated from the Artisanal Spirit Company (ASC), which owns the society, is another shiver for the Scotch industry which has enjoyed massive global growth and success over the past decade. ASC is forecasting full year revenues of £23m, compared with market expectation of £25m. The shares closed down 15.6% last Friday.
ASC’s chief executive Andrew Dane said it was a “disappointing” quarter in China and the sale of special whisky casks have not reached their forecast prices. The society holds a stock of over 16,000 casks, worth £38m. The company has experienced a slower than anticipated sales for its the 50th anniversary member casks.
The society, which has more than 40,000 members, with 18,000 in the UK, has three sites in Edinburgh, at The Vaults, 28 Queen Street, and Kaleidoscope, plus rooms in Glasgow’s Bath Street, and a society in Greville Street in London. With the festive season now underway, the company expects to break even, after reporting a £1.8m loss in the first half of the year. The company says it “remains confident that it can continue to grow profitably” in 2024.
US LEGAL CHALLENGE: The Scottish founders of sports gaming business Fanduel – which was Edinburgh’s second $1bn tech ‘unicorn’ after Skyscanner - will be watching the progress of a multi-billion class action in the United States against its rival, DraftKings, with deep interest.
FanDuel, created by Nigel and Lesley Eccles, Tom Griffiths, who studied for a PhD in Edinburgh in machine learning, and Rob Jones, was born out of Edinburgh University, and went on to create a unique online sports gaming platform in the US, now a market estimated to generate $85bn in gross revenues this year, according to the Financial Times.
Now a lawsuit, filed in the Massachusetts Superior Court, by a leading law professor who challenged Big Tobacco in the 1980s, winning a $206bn settlement, is alleging that DraftKings, the second most popular sport betting app after FanDuel, “knowingly and unfairly designed” a sign-up bonus with the aim of misleading new customers into joining to “maximise” the money being wagered.
The case is being funded by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), based in Boston and chaired by Professor Richard Daynard, who found against the dangers of smoking and tobacco industry in the 1980s.
In 2015, DraftKings became the single biggest spender of television advertising in the US, with FanDuel close behind. Both companies were forced to join forces to defend the legality of their games against attorney-generals of several US states who wanted them closed down. A proposed merger was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission in July 2017. After this failure, the Scottish founders were eased out of the company. Then, in May 2018, the US Supreme Court struck out the legal action and the questions of illegality disappeared. The Fanduel founders always argued the games were based on knowledge and skill, rather than pure chance.
The new lawsuit is likely to re-ignite the debate over whether the online sports gaming industry causes harm, especially among young sports fans. The lawsuit claims the new user is statistically likely to lose money by chasing the bonus.
It claims DraftKings are engaging in “a particularly unfair business practice because of the addictive nature of the underlying product,” according to the lawsuit. While DraftKings did not respond to the FT report, a letter to the court said: “It respectfully disagrees with all of the claims and allegations.”
SAUDI STAKE IN BALMORAL: One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds has bought a minority stake in the hotel group which owns the Balmoral Hotel in Princes Street. Saudi Arabia's PIF is taking a 49% stake in Rocco Forte Hotels, worth around £1.4bn, which will help to support its expansion, the owner said last week.
PIF is chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the country’s Prime Minister and chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs.
Founders Rocco Forte and his sister Olga Polizzi will remain as executive chairman and deputy chair, respectively. The Forte family will retain majority ownership and control of the group, which has 14 hotels.
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
REEL GONE KID: The famous Edinburgh Ceilidh Club returns to Summerhall on Tuesday, 19 December, with some of the country’s finest traditional musicians. Every track has a caller, so you don’t need to know an eightsome reel from a Gay Gordons to join in the fun.
SOULFUL: Classical-soul pioneer, composer, producer and pianist Alexis Ffrench will bring his Christmas Piano Tour to the Queen's Hall Edinburgh on Thursday at 7pm. Tickets: Alexis Ffrench, Edinburgh | Thu, 14 Dec 2023, 19:00 | Ticketmaster UK
MUPPET MENU: The Freeze Frame Film Club presents The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sunday with the option of a two course meal with a menu inspired by the film, plus freshly popped popcorn, a quiz and prizes. Doors open 5pm, film starts at 6.30pm
QUICK BITES
PHAT CHANCE: Edinburgh’s first Philly cheesesteak restaurant celebrated its grand opening at the weekend. Phat Fellas near Fountain Park – a new ‘cheesesteak heaven’ – is serving up mouthwatering halal meats, topped off with Phat Fellas secret house sauce and chives.
MANNA FROM: Heavenly Scran has taken over the food outlet inside Cloisters Bar in Edinburgh’s Tollcross, following a successful pop-up at the venue to mark the Black Isle Brewing Co's 25th birthday celebration there.
SOME EXTRA DIARY DATES FOR YOU
MOVE MUSIC: From John Williams blockbusters to Disney classics, who doesn’t love a great movie soundtrack. Singer and presenter Jamie MacDougall singer and conductor Roderick Dunk bring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Christmas at the Movies to the Usher Hall on 18 December.
ABRACADABRA: Just like that… Edinburgh International Magic Festival is back with a spell-binding programme of shows, events and workshops. The only event of its kind in the UK, it runs from 20-31 December.