Edinburgh buskers could face new controls on amplified sound by this summer

New controls on busking could be introduced in time for this summer if councillors back a Lib Dem call for new "management rules" for public spaces.

Funding of £50,000 was earmarked in the council's 2024/25 budget for enforcement and signage to tackle the issue of amplified busking in the Capital. And now Lib Dem Morningside councillor Neil Ross has tabled a motion for full council on Thursday, asking officers to draw up management rules which he wants introduced on a trial basis for the 2024 summer festival period. 

A survey found public support for busking as part of Edinburgh's cultural fabric but also concern about the impact of excessively loud music on nearby residents and businesses. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Cllr Ross said the problem was not so much the music the buskers play, but the amplification many of them use, which means it is heard over a much bigger area.  Police have powers to move buskers on, but don't have enough resources to do so. And up until now it seemed the council had no enforcement powers beyond a polite request. 

But after the council wrote to Local Government Minister Joe FitzPatrick about the issue, Mr FitzPatrick replied, drawing attention to the powers available to the council to set management rules to regulate the use of any land owned, occupied or managed by the local authority, including the conduct of people while on the land.

The powers also included the ability to expel someone from the land if they contravened a management rule and to issue exclusion orders to a person who persistently contravened the rules.

Cllr Ross believes roads, pavements, squares and pedestrian areas would all fall within the areas which the council could make management rules for, including favourite busking spots like Waverley Bridge and the Royal Mile.

Cllr Ross's motion notes that residents have been calling for action on the issue "for many years" and instructs officers to bring forward proposals in May for appropriate management rules for council-owned, occupied or managed land, including effective enforcement measures, to control the amplification of sound in public spaces.  It adds: "These management rules should be in place for the 2024 summer festival period on a trial basis."

A council survey found public support for busking as part of Edinburgh's cultural fabric but also a concern about the impact of excessively loud music on residents and businesses nearby. 

Cllr Ross said: "The issue is the indiscriminate and disruptive nature of amplfication of ordinary musical activity, where that musical activity is welcomed in itself, but the amplified nature of it isn;t necessarily because it extends beyond its normal reach - and that's when it can be destructive and annoying."

He said he hoped drawing up management rules would "address some of the issues that have been flagged up with the amplification of music which in my view doesn't really need to be amplified". And he is optimistic that there will be cross-party support for his motion.