Major review set to be launched to prevent repeat of Princes Street fire chaos

It is understood council leader Jane Meagher will put forward a motion for the next full council meeting on August 27, highlighting issues including the need for ensuring the fire safety of listed buildings left vacant, the availability of sufficient bus diversion routes and the possibility of a second tram depot to allow services to continue operating.

A major section of Princes Street has been closed to traffic and pedestrians since the July 9 fire at the former Debenhams store. Work is continuing to make the building safe and the council says the street should be able to reopen by the end of August.

Tram services from the city centre to Newhaven have also been suspended since July 9 because all the trams were in the depot at Gogar when the fire broke out in the early hours of the morning and it has not been possible for trams to run east of Princes Street.

A review would be expected to look at the resilience of the system and in particular the reliance on a single depot near one end of the line and the need for additional provision for maintenance and stabling elsewhere on the route.

The re-routing of buses along George Street while Princes Street is out of action has led to major congestion and delays across the bus network. Buses do not stop in George Street to avoid causing further delays, but passengers are left having to get off further away from their destination. And questions have been raised about how buses could be diverted along George Street in future if plans for partial pedestrianisation proceed, though the council has said this would still be possible.

It is understood Cllr Meagher's motion will also raise the issue of the interaction between bus and tram network planning, including the reduction of bus capacity as trams were introduced, and call for the review to consider whether bus capacity offers enough resilience when trams are disrupted and whether additional bus capacity could somehow be provided in such circumstances.

The fire was not the first to happen in Princes Street since so many of the properties have been standing empty. A fire in the Jenners building in January 2023 claimed the life of firefighter Barry Martin. And there had been a previous minor fire at Debenhams in April 2021. Questions have been asked about whether security for vacant premises in Edinburgh's premier street is good enough and the review is likely to look at whether improvements are required.

Clarification will also be sought on the roles and responsibilities of building owners, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Health and Safety Executive and other relevant authorities in relation to fire safety and emergency preparedness for vacant listed buildings.

It is understood Cllr Meagher will also call for an assessment of the economic impact of the disruption on city centre businesses, employers, tourism and the wider Edinburgh economy.

And she will urge the review to identify what lessons can be learned from the fire and propose any improvements required in emergency response procedures and business continuity plans across the council and the city’s transport operations.

A council source said other parties on were likely to put forward similar motions and the end result could be an amended motion which the whole council would back.

It comes as it is reported the closure of Princes Street has seen shops in neighbouring streets enjoy a surge in footfall.

Roddy Smith, chief executive of business group Essential Edinburgh, said the closure had changed the way people traverse the city centre – and that one neighbouring street had seen footfall more than quadruple.

“We’ve not seen overall a massive decrease in footfall,” he said.

“But what we have seen is people are traversing the city differently because they simply have to, and that that’s obviously affected some shops positively, and some shops shops negatively.

“Rose Street, for example, is up over 300% per cent in terms of its footfall.”

He said the change in Rose Street was most apparent at its western end, which he said has seen a “significant” uptick in pedestrians.

George Street has also seen more pedestrians, with Mr Smith saying it has become “very busy” as a result of the number of buses being diverted onto it.

Some shops on Princes Street had to close their doors for a week or two in the immediate aftermath of the fire, but these have now reopened.

Mr Smith said: “In terms of the city centre, the impact has been significant, but it has not been terrible.

“It’s nothing like the fire (on Union Corner) in Glasgow at all.

“I think the people that have been hardest hit are probably more down in Leith, because the tram can’t go down there.”

Mr Smith said retail sales data will not be available for another two or three weeks – but that there is “no doubt” some businesses will have lost out from the changes in footfall, while others will have benefitted.

Rachel Walsh, who works at the furniture and homewares shop Anta, at the western end of Rose Street, said in the immediate aftermath of the fire the street was the busiest she had ever seen it.

“There were hundreds of people walking past the shop. Everyone was just getting redirected straight through here,” she said.

“I think we can we can get a little bit lost down here because we’re right at the tail end (of the street),” she explained.

“But I would say because they got redirected, we were getting a lot more tourists, a lot more people that would have never known about the company.”

She added that it would be “amazing” if people who have been using Rose Street over recent weeks decide to make it their “new normal” to do so, even after Princes Street reopens.

Brendon Bement, who works at Viking Optical Centre on Rose Street, said it had been “incredibly busy” since the fire.

“I had an instance the other day where I was going out for lunch, and I hit a crowd just right here going onto Frederick Street,” he said.

“There were so many people that you had to wait for everyone to funnel out, which I’ve never experienced before.”