The deal was between Edinburgh Council and a firm to run the event and is said to have fallen apart over a dispute about what could realistically be delivered. Councillors met in a last ditch attempt to save Edinburgh's Christmas - which comprises festive market stalls and amusements around the city centre - on Monday, October 10.
More traditional aspects including market stalls at Princes Street Gardens and the George Street ice rink will still go ahead as planned under a new contract with Unique Assembly. Paul Lawrence, the council's director of place, said after councillors signed off AEE as the preferred contractor in June officials "worked closely with the contractor to try and deliver the approach that they had set out".
He said officers were aware of "significant work" required to fulfil some parts of the agreed contract, adding the council staff involved in the process will "look at the procurement approach we've used here and suggest whether alternatives might be better suited". "We do acknowledge that some kind of probably verbal update should have been given sooner," he said. "We could have done that and we apologise to members for that. There was no intention to keep anything from members and every intention to deliver the contract."
"It was only when it became apparent that that was not possible that we immediately informed elected members through the all-party oversight group mechanism that we did not believe that to be the case and we had to seek to make a change." Councillor Lesley Macinnes, SNP, said that "about four fifths" of the original offering has been "taken off the table" and asked whether or not there was an opportunity at an earlier stage in the process to prevent that from happening.