Edinburgh councillors back cut-down George Street scheme with asphalt replacing stone setts

The City of Edinburgh Council's Transport and Environment Committee voted on Thursday 12 November 2026 to approve a revised, lower-cost design for George Street, allowing the paused city centre scheme to move to the next stage of delivery.

The council said the revised designs seek savings by reducing excavation, and therefore the utility diversions needed, by replacing natural stone setts on the road surface with asphalt, and by changing the access control system.

Councillors also agreed how the Visitor Levy funding allocated to city centre public realm is split between George Street and improvement projects on Princes Street and Market Street/East Market Street. The council said the allocation of Visitor Levy money to city centre projects followed approval by Full Council in September.

Councillor Stephen Jenkinson, Transport and Environment Convener, said: "Recent events on Princes Street highlighted how important this is."

The revised design

The council's project notice ahead of the meeting said the reduced design would change the specification and number of bollards, which it said "allows us to considerably reduced costs", and that less excavation would be needed for diverting utility supplies.

The same notice said the reduced design would "remove the proposed trees". The council's announcement after the vote, however, said trees will be retained on the street following the councillors' decision.

The June 2025 design approval had specified natural stone throughout, including yorkstone footway slabs, re-laid traditional setts in parking areas and whinstone kerbs and setts on the carriageway. It also included eight trees, four at the Charlotte Square end and four at the St Andrew Square end, with low-level planting in a sustainable urban drainage system.

The council gave three reasons for bringing forward a revised option: the need to ensure resilience for public transport, highlighted by the building fire on Princes Street; the desire to fill the City Centre West to East Link (CCWEL) gap as soon as possible; and "the need to deliver the project within a challenging financial environment".

The council said the revised plan will fill the gap in the CCWEL and prioritises resilience for emergency bus diversions, taking account of the Princes Street fire in July. The CCWEL connects Roseburn to Leith Walk through the city centre with a cycle route, and the council marked its completion on 20 March 2024.

The pause

The decision follows a Special Council Meeting on 12 February 2026 at which the George Street funding proposal was not approved. Councillors instead instructed officers to bring a report to the Transport and Environment Committee setting out options for further city centre public realm improvements, including Princes Street and George Street.

Following the February decision the council paused ongoing work on George Street. In April 2026 it said the scheme had reached the end of RIBA Stage 4 Technical Design, that construction programmed for late 2027 would be delayed, and that activities such as promoting Statutory Orders had been put on hold.

Under the June 2025 approval, construction had been due to begin in autumn 2027 and take about two years, followed by a one-year defect period. The council's November announcement does not give a new construction programme.

Wider programme

The report approved at committee also notes other city centre projects planned or in progress, including Cowgate and South Bridge improvements and Meadows to George Street.

George Street and First New Town and Meadows to George Street are both named by the council as City Centre Transformation projects. The council consulted on the City Centre Transformation strategy in 2018 and received over 3,000 responses.