Ian Rankin becomes Princes Street Gardens revamp ambassador

Alan Cumming and Ian Rankin are ambassadors for the Princes Street Gardens revamp

Rebus author Ian Rankin has become a global ambassador for the £25m project to revamp Edinburgh's west Princes Street Gardens.

He will be promoting The Quaich Project, which will see the Ross Bandstand replaced.

Chairman Norman Springford, who has already gifted £5m to the project, resigned on Tuesday saying his motivations had been questioned.

It is understood a replacement chairman will be announced later this week.

Other ambassadors for the project are actor Alan Cumming, sculptor Andy Scott, and singers KT Tunstall and Amanda Palmer.

The role of the Quaich Bearers is to champion The Quaich Project's core objective of creating a fully accessible space for all in the heart of Edinburgh.

The "Hobbit House" is planned as part of a redevelopment of Princes Street Gardens

Mr Rankin said he wanted the gardens to be made more accessible.

He said: "My youngest son is in a wheelchair and to make it more accessible some of the viewing areas which are being proposed up at Princes Street itself, ways of getting into the park, ways of getting into the grounds, or just getting a viewing spot would be great.

He added that the bandstand was not used enough.

The award-winning author said: "Of course, because it is not being used nearly enough, it has fallen into despair.

"I I think community groups could ask to use it for things; you could have amateur musicians being invited along to do something that's a step up from busking but not dissimilar, storytelling sessions during the weekends and school holidays.

"You would have a range of age groups being catered for. Not necessarily music, because not everyone who's using the gardens wants music blasting at them all the time. But storytelling would be very good. Stuff for very small kids, stuff for older kids."

The Quaich Project is a public-private partnership between the Ross Development Trust and City of Edinburgh Council, which aims to transform the 19th Century gardens.

The plan is to create an open-air arena to replace the Ross Bandstand and redevelop the gardens as an accessible public space.

But there has been criticism after reports that firms were being invited to sponsor parts of the project in return for corporate branding.