What the row over Edinburgh's Tour de France bid really shows

The Herald Scotland

4 hours ago

However, that's just the start, as it were, and in 2015 then London Mayor Boris Johnson turned down the opportunity because total costs came in at around £30 million. But a local audit in Bilbao calculated their institutions benefitted from a return on investment ratio of 1:8.5, with €12.2 million generating €103.9 on the back of global exposure.
If true, the £1.7 million Edinburgh Council is being asked to contribute for the Grand Départ to set off from the Castle Esplanade in 2027 sounds like good use of public money. It's obviously the view of Edinburgh's Chief Executive Paul Lawrence who, with a tight turnaround for a decision ─ the full agreement must be signed by this Monday ─ approved the spending in principle without first seeking formal council committee approval following detailed scrutiny.
Edinburgh is hosting the race (Image: free) This week he was forced to admit it was 'inappropriate' but felt a positive informal discussion with political group leaders in October was enough to proceed.
Detailed scrutiny is the theory and depends on who's on the committee and how the politics plays out, as far from a business boardroom as it's possible to imagine. SNP councillor Kate Campbell, never a fan of tourism and instrumental in disbanding the city's Marketing Edinburgh agency in 2019, told Tuesday's Finance committee that 'bringing a huge global event to Edinburgh in the middle of July, is not going to create additional value because … most people agree we are over-touristed at that time.'
The arguments about process, decision-making and scrutiny aside, this gets to the nub of the issue, where a major opportunity to sell Edinburgh and Scotland as a destination ─ the racers won't just whizz around the city centre but head off to Dumfries ─ could be lost because of the political bias of anti-growth councillors.
The Old Town is indeed chocka during the Festivals, but it is an exaggeration to claim Edinburgh has too many tourists the rest of the year, and despite the Usher Hall, Traverse and Lyceum at the heart of the International Festival, and minutes from Princes Street, in August Lothian Road is hardly La Rambla.
It's ironic that Cllr Campbell's SNP-led administration campaigned hard for the introduction of the Tourist Tax, which it is hoped will fund the Grand Départ investment. Either they want visitors to fund an ever-expanding list of things the council can't fund, or they don't.
The CEO has some form for cutting procedural corners, going back to 2019 in his previous role as Director of Place when the 2019 Edinburgh's Christmas market went ahead without planning permission, for which he also apologised. As that too involved a very narrow timetable, perhaps the Grand Départ row is another example of it being better to ask forgiveness than permission. But councillors must do the job they are elected to do ─ set policy and scrutinise ─ especially when there are members with as forensic attention to detail as my former colleague, the actuary Phil Doggart, who politely tore into officers on Tuesday.
The bigger question is not so much if Mr Lawrence plays fast and loose with the system, but if the system itself is appropriate for a major city facing international competition, where quick decisions and delivery is essential. Given the time taken to progress major initiatives, like New Granton or West Town, the answer must be no.
Sometimes risks are justified, such as in late 2022 when previous leader Cammy Day signed off support for the Forth Green freeport without committee scrutiny to avoid SNP and Green councillors derailing the ultimately successful application. The political buy-in, the access to funding and a sympathetic planning and regulatory framework needed for international competitiveness simply aren't there.
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By comparison, England's regional mayors have significant executive powers. A retread of the Conservative 'Levelling Up' programme or not, the Labour Government has just announced nine English city region mayors will split a £15.6 billion investment in transport alone. The consequential funding boost for Scotland goes to the Scottish Government, in all probability swallowed by the growing social security bill, set to hit just short of £7 billion this year.
Last December, the UK Government revealed plans to give the mayors in the seven biggest English regional conurbations new funding settlements to cover housing, regeneration, economic growth, and employment support, to keep pace with the devolved nations.
But Scotland is not a city region, and Glasgow and Edinburgh are not powerful city regions with devolved power but effectively in the same league as Leicester and Southampton. Latest ONS data (from 2023) gives a misleading impression of economic health, comparing Edinburgh's gross domestic product per head of £69,809 with London's £69,077, more an illustration of a concentration of well-paid public sector jobs in a population 18 times smaller.
Paul Lawrence at least wants to get things done, perhaps in the mould of the late Manchester CEO Howard Bernstein, but he had political permission to get Manchester moving.
By comparison, Edinburgh was saddled with the previous CEO's vacuous 2050 City Vision, a colouring-in book where a proper economic strategy was needed, and despite four years' preparation was so poor it had to be relaunched just three years later in 2023.
The Grand Départ shows Edinburgh has the assets for international competition but not the effective decision-making structures needed to build on it. Holding out a begging bowl to the Scottish Government while local politicians bicker about priorities ain't no way to run a bike race.
John McLellan is a former Edinburgh Evening News and Scotsman editor. He served as a City of Edinburgh councillor for five years. Brought up in Glasgow, McLellan has lived and worked in Edinburgh for 30 years