Edinburgh council: failing to help

It would be a naïve man who thought himself capable of entirely resolving the squabbles between town and gown that have seasoned university life for the best part of a millennium. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that much has changed since February 1355, when bow and arrow wielding locals claimed the lives of 63 Oxford students at the Battle of St Scholastica’s Day. It is thus in the hope of further piecemeal advancements in student-native relations that EUSA’s newly announced plans for a thorough assessment of friction in the stairwell are to be welcomed.

The £5,000 of council money that has gone to support this endeavour is also appropriate. But given that the council is responsible for the welfare of all Edinburgh’s inhabitants, it is astonishing that it has not seen fit to perform such research itself at a far earlier date than this.

Edinburgh council has sought to make the revival of talk about HMO quotas an annual tradition in recent years and, as a result, the staving off of such proscriptive policy-making has become one of the major tasks for any students’ association president. As this paper has noted before, knee-jerk punitive restrictions of this kind serve neither residents nor students in the cause of social cohesion. And yet the council’s plans to sequester students in pre-packaged, purpose-built accommodation continue unabated.

The worrying monopoly on such post-fresher halls that the developer UNITE is establishing across Edinburgh will spell trouble should HMO quotas ever find a back door to creep through. With prices in their cheapest accommodation starting at a hefty £527 per month, any move away from private tenancies could substantially increase student poverty. On page 13 of this issue of The Journal we report that planning permission for UNITE’s latest development was granted in the face of over 130 objections from local residents – and only after the company made a contribution of over £90,000 to Edinburgh’s beleaguered tram scheme. Edinburgh council must be made aware of the dangers that are inherent in this policy and should be embarrassed at opening themselves to suspicion by involving donations in this way.

Talk of student "ghettos" is clearly excessive but, given that students form such a large proportion of Edinburgh’s population, it would be a loss for the city as a whole were students further discouraged from engaging with local communities by forcing them back into halls. Attempting to improve the relationships between students and their neighbours must make more sense than dissolving those relationships altogether.

Clearly, a profound shift is needed to assuage the grievances of many Edinburgh residents, whose vociferous objections to HMO flats no doubt spur the council on in its dubious dealings. Fears of the loss of a sense of community are wholly understandable; just as picturesque villages, full of second homes, find themselves largely deserted outside weekends and holidays, so the summer holidays can leave swathes of Edinburgh all but abandoned for months at a time.

Whilst EUSA is apparently pulling out all stops, nothing that Edinburgh council has committed to thus far has done anything to temper anger in communities. A sea-change is needed on the Royal Mile before the stalemate can be lifted on the battlefields of Marchmont.