Licensing

Many residents breathed a sigh of relief after the withdrawal in recent days of the application for a licence to run 37–49 Albany Street as a 42-person house in multiple occupation.

Keasim Events Ltd wants planning permission for another pop-up Festival Village on the roof of Waverley Market this summer (23/02154/FUL). It would operate from June until 30 Sept, with an additional 6-week period for clearance and removal.

Keasmim promises local economic benefits, improved appearance, fittings and access to the site, and less people spill-over onto Princes St near to the bus stop.

In Issue 323 we reported Molmoor Waverley Ltd’s application to erect a temporary Festival Village above Waverley Mkt lasting 3 years (22/04639/FUL). In fact, it had already been built.

Professor Cliff Hague, Chairman of the Cockburn Association, delivered the heritage watchdog’s annual lecture last night on Zoom.

His theme was the Frankenstein’s monster that is festivalisation – in particular, Edinburgh’s monstrous creation that has grown too big for the laboratory and now threatens to ruin the very apparatus that gave it birth.

Well, that was this viewer’s expectation. Instead, what emerged was a calm, forensic account of how the Festivals and Fringe emerged in the city and grew to their current proportions.