Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young talks to arts correspondent Brian Ferguson about plans to halt flypasts at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman Daily Build and for Wednesday I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy
00:13Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson to take
00:17a look at some of the headlines. Hi Brian. Hello there. Let's have a look at the front
00:22page first off and we lead today with a story around house building in Scotland. As you
00:30can see there, new builds have plummeted to a 10 year low amid the housing crisis that
00:36we all know about. So the rate of building is even lower than it was during Covid, very
00:42worrying indeed. The picture on the front there comes from the state visit by the Japanese
00:50Emperor to the UK yesterday and you can maybe see in the bottom right hand corner Brian's
00:57story around the Edinburgh Tattoo and that is what I want to speak to you about Brian.
01:02So a big feature of the Tattoo every year is the military flypast, often have a range
01:13of it, both current and vintage I guess is the term. It's something which the crowds
01:23very much look forward to, the RAF and the army very much enjoy doing but it is now causing
01:30quite a stushy. Yeah basically the context is really interesting. Obviously Edinburgh
01:37as a city has set a net zero target for 2030. A lot of what the city council does is meant
01:47to be driving towards that. There's a lot of things in the pipeline, clamping down on
01:54people driving certain vehicles into the city centre. A lot of the council's agenda is about
02:01trying to create more environmentally friendly places in the city, encourage people into
02:06public transport and all the rest of it. So perhaps unsurprisingly some of the councillors
02:12particularly from the Green Party seem to have instigated this one. They've been having a look
02:18at things like, another thing they've kind of got involved in is trying to bring in new
02:26regulations on letting off fireworks basically. There already has been, people will remember not
02:34so long ago there was a big fireworks finale at the end of the festival. Now for a variety of
02:39reasons that does not happen anymore, certainly not happening at the moment. But it'd be very difficult
02:44for the Edinburgh International Festival to bring that back I think partly because of the
02:50environmental impact of that event. But the big one that does happen is the tattoo
02:57and these fly paths. Now they don't happen, they might have happened in the past every performance
03:03but they happen normally at the weekend and there was seven last year which as far as I can make out
03:10was the highest number for some time, certainly since the event returned after Covid and possibly
03:16going back like seven or eight years. There were seven of these things. I actually
03:21experienced one of them, I didn't see it but I'd certainly heard that it was in the grass market
03:27or definitely and it was quite alarming actually the noise last year during August. I mean I
03:34quickly worked out what it was but it was absolutely a terrific noise. But anyway these fly paths
03:40are in the sights of some councillors and the council leader Cammy Day wrote to
03:49both the Royal Air Force and the Tattoo last year to kind of air some of these concerns.
03:54The council, despite my best efforts yesterday, would not release the letter to me and Cammy Day
04:00proved a bit elusive yesterday but certainly from the Green councillor I spoke to
04:08they're very clear on, it's not just an environmental thing as far as
04:14they're concerned as well, although that obviously is a big driving force, but they were
04:18basically been raising concerns about the impact on war veterans, refugees who have moved to
04:23Edinburgh and also family pets, a huge issue. I mean bonfire night every year but
04:31the Tattoo has firework displays every night and also these fly paths as well.
04:37I normally at the start of the night and there was a tremendous
04:43video last year posted by the Red Arrows that they recorded from inside
04:50one of the aircraft coming over Edinburgh. Beautiful night, absolutely incredible images
04:55but there's no doubt about it that there's going to be increasing scrutiny on things like this,
05:02particularly when, like I say, a council has its own net zero targets.
05:08Edinburgh's festivals as a collective, which the Tattoo is very much part of, they're part of that
05:14festivals Edinburgh umbrella group. Four years ago they published their own
05:20commitments, they have pledged to be very much part of that collective effort to ensure that
05:27Edinburgh's a net zero city and a really important bit of background context is that every arts
05:33organisation that's trying to secure funding from Creative Scotland absolutely has to demonstrate
05:40their commitments to sustainability and to tackling climate change. Every arts organisation
05:48has been specifically scored on that, depending on what they've said in their applications,
05:55that's to secure Scottish Government funding and obviously tackling climate change is a big
06:00priority for the Government. So that's a quite intriguing backdrop. On the other hand,
06:06obviously these flypasts and the Tattoo itself are very long established, the City Council has
06:13as far as I can work out, has always been involved in the Tattoo, it's very supportive of the Tattoo,
06:20the Lord Provost Robert Aldrin sits on the board of the Tattoo as does the Chief Executive of the
06:26council and you know, councillors, not just councillors go along to it, but you know it's a
06:34hugely ceremonial event for the whole, for the city, the First Minister's normally there and
06:40obviously members of their own family are there on a regular basis as well. Is it, the City Council
06:48obviously talking about this now, but is this something they have any control over anyway? I
06:53mean, can the City Council say to the Tattoo, no you can't have a bomber flying over at nine
07:02o'clock at night? No, strictly speaking, no I don't think they certainly don't need any kind
07:08of permissions to do that as far as I know, but obviously the council does help facilitate the
07:14event very much through road closures and I'm pretty sure they certainly license the event every
07:20year, so I think they could bring some influence to, or try and bring some influence to bear
07:27on the Tattoo. You know, I think that's probably about as far as they could push it, but I wouldn't
07:35have figured from the Tattoo's point of view, I wouldn't think, it may be interesting to see how
07:40far this goes through the council, certainly a lot of councillors these days seem to be very
07:46prepared to push these things as far as they can in terms of a vote, there's obviously not a
07:52coalition in the council, so it could well be that it goes to a vote in the council, you know, that
07:58these things should either be reduced or completely stopped. You know, I think if the Tattoo
08:05maybe kind of moved a little bit towards reducing them somehow, you know, in number that might go
08:13some way towards it, but certainly, you know, I think certainly the Green councillors are like,
08:18why is this happening, you know, how on earth, you know, as far as they can sit, it sits
08:24completely at odds with all the council's efforts to tackle climate change, you know, and
08:30you know, it's arguably the most high-profile single event in Edinburgh over the summer in
08:38terms of the audience it attracts, not only in the city, but it's had a global TV audience of
08:43100 million, so yeah, I mean, it's not one of these issues that's going to go away, particularly,
08:49you know, as far as I know, these flagposts will be staged again this summer,
08:56although it will be interesting to see exactly how many are staged, let's say there were seven
09:01last year, but, you know, we should find out shortly, but they're never normally publicised
09:07that well, which I think is possibly one of the issues, so it may be that there's more of an effort
09:13to do that, but again, that might kind of further inflame the situation, but yeah, it's interesting,
09:18let's say it was probably inconceivable five or six years ago that Edinburgh wouldn't have
09:23a festival fireworks display at the end of August, but the fact remains is that event no longer exists
09:28and for a variety of reasons, not least the cost of it, never mind the environmental impact,
09:34that event doesn't happen anymore, so these things are certainly not set in stone by any means.
09:40Great, thanks for that, Brian, we'll be keeping a close eye on that story as it develops, you do
09:45feel it's got a couple more twists to come, please keep an eye on scotsman.com throughout the day for
09:49all the very latest news and analysis, if you can do subscribe, then you can watch and read everything
09:56that we do, and if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the book with me
10:00and from Brian, it's bye for now.