EDINBURGH City Council have reinstalled a plaque on the base of the Melville Monument addressing legacies of slavery and colonialism.
The A3 brass panel in St Andrew Square was removed by Bobby Dundas, a descendant of Henry Melville, in September 2023 in a move that Council Leader Cammy Day called “improper”.
The plaque in question accused Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, of being “instrumental in deferring the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade”.
It went on to say that as a “result of this delay, more than half a million enslaved crossed the Atlantic”.
READ MORE: Tom Devine renews attack on Edinburgh council over Dundas plaque's 'bad history'
The Melville Monument Committee, which includes descendants of the politician, applied for and received listed building consent to have the plaque removed.
They said the description was “cartoonishly inaccurate”.
Councillors in the city voted to replace the plaque in December following refusals by the Melville Monument Committee to return the panel. It has now officially been replaced with the same wording.
The plaque was crafted by a committee of city councillors, Scotland’s first black professor Sir Geoff Palmer (below) and another academic.
The council said it provided "historical context to the role of Henry Dundas," with Day saying it would "not allow the actions of a minority to derail the important ongoing work to address the legacies of slavery and colonialism in our city".
He added: "Following the refusal of the Melville Monument Committee to return the original plaque, we filed an official report with Police Scotland in October.
"This investigation is ongoing, and our legal team will continue to monitor the situation closely."
The council is seeking to recover the costs of the replacement plaque from the Melville Monument Committee.
Police Scotland said that no criminality had been established in their initial investigation last year.
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