John Denholm, Managing Director of Denholm Associates,
weighs up the pros and cons...
How will the trams affect your business?
Our office at Denholm
Associates will ultimately benefit tremendously from the trams,
because we're at the bottom of Constitution Street in Leith and
will be pretty much next to a tram stop. Being in marketing
recruitment, candidates and clients have to drop into our office
frequently, and this will make it easier. Although Leith is a great
location for marketing and creative businesses, it's sometimes a
little far from the city centre. When the tram is up and running,
it will generally bring the burgeoning creative community closer
into the city centre and closer to the airport, which will be very
beneficial.
What impact have you seen from the tram
works?
I'm also involved in a couple of retail boutique businesses, one
of which -
Mrs Smith - is based in Stafford Street. That area in and
around the West End has experienced a dramatic reduction in
footfall due to the tram works and it has materially affected our
business. We've since significantly improved the stock to create a
destination shop for upmarket labels. On the plus side, there's
going to be a major tram stop at the junction of Stafford Street
very close to the vicinity of the shop. We're quite excited about
that because it provides an opportunity for advertising and
marketing. So at the moment you could say that we're a bit
schizophrenic about the trams.
For or against?
Longer term, I think the trams will be a good thing both from a
business perspective and as a citizen. Despite feeling some pain at
the moment, we're sticking in there and are confident we'll reap
the benefits in two to three years' time when the trams get going.
I've travelled on the Amsterdam
tram system and think they will be just what a city like
Edinburgh needs. They will also integrate
very well with what is a very
good bus service. I think a lot of people have got into this
slightly negative argument of, 'Why do we need trams when we've got
perfectly good buses'? But when they're up and running, we can
combine the best of both and have a fully integrated public
transport system.
