Wednesday August 6th 2025
Spiegeltent in St Andrew Square
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
A planning application for an Edinburgh Fringe venue has been branded ‘cynical’ by Edinburgh councillors after it began construction well before permission was granted.
The owners of the Famous Spiegeltent in St Andrew Square applied for planning permission on June 11, and started works on June 30, drawing in a range of public objections.
On Wednesday, the city’s Development Management Sub-Committee gave the site planning permission by a narrow 6-4 margin – but councillors had criticism for the developers.
SNP councillor Amy McNeese-Meechan said: “A cynical person might wonder, since we know that festivals and things like this have to be planned months, if not years, in advance, why it came in so late.
“I’m also concerned that some people may feel that some entities are getting around procedures by simply going ahead with it and submitting applications when they know it’s too late to really do a full analysis.
“I don’t believe that the people that put the tent there didn’t know quite a bit of time beforehand that they were going to do it.”
Green councillor Ben Parker agreed that the application was ‘cynical’, continuing: “I just want to say thank you to council officers. You’ve been put in a very difficult situation here.”
He also raised concerns about the impact the Spiegeltent could have on trees in the park, which were echoed by other councillors.
He continued: “A balance, in this case, would be about finding a way to have events in our parks which still have the economic benefits which also work with our environmental policies.
“I don’t think this application does this. I think this application rides roughshod over the tree production zones we worked hard on making sure were included in the [city plan].”
Other councillors raised concerns over the burden late festival applications place on staff, but said the Spiegeltent application was not the place to address those.
Conservative councillor Joanna Mowat said: “It’s probably not really a question for this committee today. It’s for us to take away.
“I suppose, I would like to give assurance to anyone who’s watching, who’s concerned about whatever happens with this application, that we will do that work and say, ‘how do we not put officers in the position where they’re determining [applications] as building is happening?’”
Labour councillor Tim Pogson added: “I more or less would say the same as Councillor Mowat.
“I think now that we need to make sure that all festival producers take cognisance of what their responsibilities are in this regard.
“And I know that’s more than just planning, so I want somehow for this committee or this council to send a very strong message to all festival producers to say, look, these are the deadlines we need you to comply with.”
Cllr Pogson also endorsed an earlier proposal by Cllr Parker to add consideration of tree protection measures to any planning approval for the tent.
The Spiegeltent has been hosting events for the Jazz and Blues festival and for the Fringe since July 12.
Planning legislation does allow for planning permission to be granted retroactively, meaning builders and developers are allowed to start construction without approval.
However, they risk being served enforcement notices if permission is not granted, the consequences of which can include, in some cases, being made to remove their structure.
Council officers said they had to scramble in the 19 days between the application and the start of construction to mitigate possible damages to tree life in the square from the tent site.
They said that these mitigations had made the impact on tree life in the square less significant, but that the council tree officer still had concerns.
Green councillor Alys Mumford asked why the organisers had submitted two different tree protection plans for the Spiegeltent site.
Officers responded that they had asked for an updated plan, feeling the first one submitted did not have enough detail.
In responses submitted to the council’s planning portal, the Cockburn Association and the New Town and Broughton Community Council raised concerns over the application.
The association wrote that the application ‘disregards due democratic oversight’ of the planning process.
And the community council said it did not have faith its objections would have any value towards the decision being made on the tent.
The sub-committee voted to grant planning permission with a condition that tree monitoring reports are submitted to the council twice per week.
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