The New Town & Broughton Community Council (NTBCC) submitted a representation to the recent application for the Edinburgh Christmas Market in East Princes Street gardens (22/04917/FUL).

The application as submitted covered temporary use of the public gardens for rides /attractions (including the big wheel /carousels / fun flyer / techno base) as well as food /craft concession stalls and other supporting facilities.

The application requested permission for a temporary but recurring period of 5 years, i.e. until Christmas 2026.

The planning application is due to be considered at the Council’s Development Management Sub-Committee on 9^th November. It is currently recommended for approval despite several points raised by those commenting being defined as ‘non-material’  and hence not taken into account as part of the determination.

The community council is fully aware of the significant challenges in delivering this year’s Christmas Market – primarily due to the apparent failed procurement exercise with Angel Events which has resulted in a very late change for the organisation of the event (although we would note that the full details of this are not yet  available to the wider public).

Therefore, it would seem appropriate if the issues that resulted in Angel Events withdrawing from the contract could be reviewed as soon as possible given the historic and ongoing controversy with the Winter Festival process.  We would support the setting up of an independent review to look at the apparent failure of the procurement process as this is essential for both the public and elected Councillors to better understand the issues behind this and to provide necessary insight to determine an appropriate way forward for any future Winter Festivals beyond 2022.

NTBCC, in common with others (including the recent submission from the Council’s Parks & Greenspaces), also strongly support that given the current circumstances, any approval should be for one year only (being 2022/23) and not for the duration as currently requested.  This would allow a more in-depth discussion in early 2023 between the new provider, key stakeholders and the Council to develop and agree a sensible and supportable site plan and operating strategy for subsequent years.

That said, we do acknowledge the challenges that the newly-formed operator / provider (Unique Assembly) face in attempting to bring forward a very late planning application for this event. It is unfortunate despite various consultations carried out by Edinburgh Council that this process seems ‘very last minute’; such that responders may be conflicted in providing unsupportive comments to what has been proposed, as they would not want to prevent some form of Christmas activity to take place but may be supportive, in  principle, of  appropriate and well-defined temporary facilities to support an Edinburgh Christmas event, whilst having some misgivings as to the detail of the current application.

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