Bus shelter move aims to stop restaurant's homeless troubles

A RESTAURATEUR hopes to stop homeless people from loitering outside his curry house – by having the bus shelter they gather in partially dismantled.

Shujon Ali, owner of the recently opened Holi Spice Indian restaurant on Holyrood Road, says his new business has failed to get off the ground since opening in January and has blamed the problems on the disruption caused by homeless people from the neighbouring Streetwork shelter gathering at the bus stop outside.

Streetwork, formerly known as The Cowgate Centre, permits a limited number of homeless people to use its day services at any one time, often leaving some clients to congregate outside.

Following complaints from the restaurant Edinburgh council has now agreed to remove the seat and side panels from the shelter.

Ahasan Habib, waiter at Holi Spice, said: "The homeless people are just out of control. They sit outside our shop, and in the bus shelter, drinking and smoking.

"We've tried to move them on but we get a mouthful of abuse so we're scared to even approach them now. I even put a potted plant on the steps outside to stop them sitting there, but it quickly disappeared.

"Ever since we opened we've been practically empty, and yet we can see the Holyrood 9A pub across the road and it's absolutely overflowing with customers, especially on a Friday and Saturday night, so it's clear that the business is there.

"Holyrood Road is a good area and we've had a few corporate customers coming up from the Scottish Parliament or the Citigroup offices down the road, and they've all complimented us on our food and our service so the only way to explain it is that people must be put off by the homeless people outside."

Restaurant staff have now requested a meeting with Streetwork to discuss the problem, but hope removing the seat and sides from the bus stop will go some way to alleviating the problem in the meantime.

The Holyrood Road unit has had a string of short-lived owners in the last five years.

Staff at the nearby NCP car park have also had to deal with homeless people gathering inside the car park.

Claire Gibson, head of services at Streetwork, said the centre's staff were largely preoccupied with tending to users inside the building and were unable to monitor what goes on outside.

She added: "We do have CCTV but it doesn't extend as far as the bus stop. The instructions we give to our users is to be aware of our neighbouring residents and businesses and behave in an appropriate manner."

City Centre councillor David Beckett confirmed that council officers had already removed the side panels this week, and said the seat would be removed shortly.

He added: "The problem with the seat is that it contains the electronics that power the shelter lights, so we have to wait for Scottish Power to give us the go-ahead but I am assured that the matter is in hand."