After 19 Years, Community-Led Campaign Secures £1.86 Million Visitor Levy Investment to Transform The Causey

Council backing will unlock the permanent transformation of the historic Southside space into a greener, safer and more welcoming place for residents and visitors.

A 19-year community campaign to transform The Causey in Edinburgh’s Southside is set to become reality following approval of £1.86 million from the city’s Visitor Levy programme.

The investment will enable the permanent transformation of West Crosscauseway and its traffic island into a vibrant, people-focused public place, with widened pavements, traffic-calming measures, segregated cycling facilities and a new accessible public space.

Combined with £300,000 already being provided through the Council’s core budget, the funding will support delivery of the project’s two phases over the next two years. The published Visitor Levy recommendation comprises £462,000 towards key infrastructure improvements at the Causey Triangle and £1.4 million for the second phase, extending the work towards Nicolson Street to improve connectivity and the wider public realm. 

The decision represents a defining moment for a project first conceived in 2007, when the late Edinburgh architect Alison Blamire transformed the neglected traffic island into a temporary “tropical island”, allowing local people to experience its potential as a place for people rather than vehicles.

Alison Blamire also gave the space its name: "The Causey" derives from the "cassies" or "causeys" - the cobbled setts that paved Edinburgh's earliest streets, likely quarried from nearby Salisbury Crags. Since then, The Causey has grown into one of Edinburgh’s longest-running community placemaking campaigns. Local residents have sustained the vision through workshops, exhibitions, consultations, creative events, street activations and regular “Sit Oots”, building support for a permanent transformation of the space. Previous coverage has highlighted the project’s long community history and the persistence required to overcome funding delays and other setbacks.

The project has previously been hailed as an exemplary community initiative and has been developed through collaboration between Causey Development Trust, local residents, City of Edinburgh Council officers, the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, Edinburgh World Heritage and landscape architects Ironside Farrar. The current council papers formally describe it as a community-led project and recognise that it originated as a community initiative.

Sarah Drummond, Chair of Causey Development Trust, said:

“This is a transformational moment for The Causey and the culmination of 19 years of extraordinary determination by local people.

“What began with local architect Alison Blamire’s inspired transformation of a traffic island into a tropical island can now become the permanent, welcoming and people-focused space that the community has always known was possible.

“This is a powerful example of what community-led action can achieve. Local people have shaped the vision, sustained it through years of setbacks and continued to demonstrate how this neglected space could bring people together.

“The Causey also shows exactly how Visitor Levy investment can work for Edinburgh. It will improve everyday life for residents while creating a greener, safer and more welcoming experience for visitors moving through the city’s Southside and festival footprint.

“We are enormously grateful to everyone who has kept faith with this project, including our volunteers, local residents and businesses, councillors from across the political spectrum, council officers and the many partner organisations who have helped us reach this point. This investment means that, after nearly two decades, the community’s full vision can finally be delivered.”

Located on the edge of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site and within the Southside Conservation Area, The Causey sits on a busy route connecting residential communities with major cultural, educational and visitor destinations.

It is within walking distance of Assembly Roxy, Festival Theatre, Summerhall, George Square and Edinburgh Futures Institute, home of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Council’s Visitor Levy assessment specifically identifies the site’s location within Edinburgh’s festival footprint and the benefits it can offer festivalgoers as well as residents.

The transformed space will be designed to support informal gatherings and community-led activity, as well as potential outdoor performances, pop-up markets, art installations and exhibitions. New public-realm and active-travel infrastructure will create a safer, more attractive environment for people walking, wheeling and cycling.

The project builds on the implementation of the Traffic Regulation Order in July 2026, which introduced the first physical changes at the site following the long-running campaign. The permanent capital works will complete the wider vision for The Causey as a civic space for culture, connection and community life.

ENDS

For all media enquiries contact Sarah Drummond | 07741316934 | Sarah.Drummond@premiercomms.com

Notes to Editors

• Causey Development Trust is a volunteer-led charity working to put people back at the heart of The Causey by transforming West Crosscauseway and its traffic island into an accessible public space.
• The campaign began in 2007 when architect Alison Blamire transformed the traffic island into a temporary tropical island for three days.
• The current council recommendation allocates £1.862 million from Edinburgh's Visitor Levy: £462,000 in 2026/27 and £1.4 million in 2027/28. A further £300,000 is being provided from the Council's core budget.
• Phase 1 covers key infrastructure improvements at the Causey Triangle. Phase 2 extends the works towards Nicolson Street to improve connectivity and the surrounding public realm.
• The Traffic Regulation Order was granted by the Council in 2022 and physically implemented in July 2026, delivering the project's first phase.
• The project is supported by organisations including Edinburgh World Heritage, the University of Edinburgh, Living Streets Edinburgh, Living Streets Scotland and the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, formerly Sustrans.
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