Frances Horsburgh

Scottish Political Writer

THE Prime Minister yesterday thanked Edinburgh for the hospitality it had extended to those attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Mr Tony Blair is expected to make further complimentary remarks about the city's handling of the occasion during a report on the outcome of the summit to the House of Commons, later today.

As life in the city started to get back to normal after the biggest security operation it has witnessed, there was news of a major study to assess the economic, environmental, and social impact of meeting.

Meanwhile, arguments continue over the effects on businesses and retailers of the massive security measures which turned parts of the capital into a virtual ghost town, and the repeated council warnings that people should leave their cars at home.

The director of the Whisky Heritage Centre, in the Royal Mile, Mr Alastair McIntosh, renewed his criticism of the way in which some of the arrangements for the summit had been handled.

While he was very supportive of these types of events, he said, the latest figures showed that business at the centre during CHOGM was down by 33%, compared with the corresponding period last year.

Mr McIntosh was unhappy about predictions by some groups that the summit would bring a big boost for retailers and other businesses in the city, and about the massive security measures.

''I am no expert, but I think to have closed down most of Edinburgh five days in advance of the meeting seems ludicrous and represents overkill,'' he said. With all the advance warnings people had more or less been invited not to come into the centre of the city.

Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Peter Stillwell, however, said the overall loss of business appeared to be between 5% to 7%. Business at the weekend had been excellent, possibly because the Family Festival had brought people into the town. This compared with a 40% loss during the European Summit, in 1992.

A wide-ranging study of the effects on the local economy of the four-day CHOGM has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Edinburgh Partnership, whose members include the council, the tourist board, the Chamber of Commerce, and Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd.

Speaking for LEEL, Mr Frank Sullivan said it was expected the research would include interviews with the owners of shops, hotels, and restaurants - and possibly members of the public - to gauge reaction to the summit.

It will look at the three objectives which the partnership had originally identified - to make CHOGM Edinburgh the best ever, to raise the profile of Edinburgh, and to raise awareness of the Commonwealth - and see if they had been met.

A study already commissioned from DTZ Pieda, which predicted that the meeting could inject #15.5m into the local economy with a spin off of 6000 temporary jobs, was criticised by some experts as overstated. They argued that the sums had only displaced other spending which would have come to Edinburgh without CHOGM, and the council money could have been spent on other services.

Part of the study's #15.5m was spent by central government, with #6.1m on policing and security, and #7m on organising and running the conference. While the City of Edinburgh Council was allowed to spend an additional #1.2m which the Scottish Office promised will not count for capping purposes - #500,000 on road closures, the erection of barriers, and road management, as well as #200,000 on additional cleansing.

Council unions have also criticised the spending at a time when the authority has said it needs to cut costs and some workers face redundancy.

Mr Sullivan said it had also been predicted that in the long term, the summit would add #2m a year to the local economy, with 100 permanent jobs. The long-term impact would be in tourism, conference business, and an influx of foreign students.

A council spokeswoman said the first reaction to CHOGM was ''very positive'', but there had to be a detailed analysis of the actual economic impact, and the council would be speaking to both the public and private sectors.

In a statement yesterday, Lothian and Borders Chief Constable Roy Cameron praised local people for their actions during the meeting.

He said: ''Inevitably, people have been inconvenienced, but the overriding fact is that the people of Edinburgh and the surrounding areas have assisted and supported the police whenever we have needed such backing.''

The scale of the policing of the event - the biggest gathering of world leaders in the UK - had been ''an enormous challenge'' and many compliments had been received from visitors on the friendliness and efficiency of staff.