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Dateline: 12th December, 2006
"Absurd" Assembly Rooms Revamp Edinburgh City Council's proposed revamp of the city's Assembly Rooms, which would include three shops and a restaurant on the ground floor and an expansion of the Music Room to 750 seats and making it suitable for all types of concerts, has been branded "absurd" by Fringe director Paul Gudgin and William Burdett Coutts, who runs the venue during the Fringe and does recognise that the venue needs revamping, claims what would happen would be that "the whole guts of our operation would be ripped out". The changes would result in, he said, "us losing three of our main spaces, and the club bar, which is obviously one of our main sources of revenue during the Fringe." However Edinburgh council's tourism and culture leader Donald Anderson said, "What people have to remember is that the Assembly Rooms is for the benefit of the whole city and not just Bill Burdett Coutts. We want it to be an asset all year round." Burdett Coutts claims that there was no consultation. "I was called to a meeting earlier this week," he told the Edinburgh Evening News on Saturday, "and was told what was happening and that I could basically like it or lump it. There was no way it could be called a consultation. It was a fait accompli." The proposed revamp would take eighteen months and would cost £10m and both Gudgin and Buredett Coutts are also concerned about it being closed during the Fringe. Gudgin told the paper, "It's absolutely vital that the Assembly Rooms remains open during the Fringe because of its importance," and added, "It's hard to believe that neither I nor Bill have been involved in the planning process for this." However Anderson replied, "We are determined to do everything we can to ensure it doesn't have to close during the Fringe." The Georgian Building is only used occasionally during the rest of the year and the council want it to be used for artistic events, conferences and other events. The reaction of Edinburgh residents on the Evening News website is uniformly supportive of the council, with one saying, "Edinburgh is a 'year round' city - why do these people think that everything revolves around them and 'The Fringe'? The Council is right on this one - the Assembly Rooms should be a year-round venue." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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