H&M forced to rip down sign

H&M high street fashion giant has been forced to tear down an illegal sign outside its flagship store in Princes Street.

Edinburgh City Council refused to grant retrospective planning permission for two corporate H&M signs, which had been erected illegally outside the store along the city's world-famous thoroughfare.

Now H&M has failed in an appeal to the Scottish Executive to overturn the council's decision and has been forced to remove one sign.

The H&M store occupies the ground floor of the five-storey 1966 A-listed New Club building to the west of the foot of the Mound.

Trevor Croft, a reporter for the Executive's Inquiry Reporters Unit, said in his ruling: "I consider that the signs would be damaging to visual amenity by detracting from the general streetscape. The proposed projecting sign, although relatively insignificant seen against the mass of the building, would, however, upset the relatively clean facade of the shop frontages."