Old Town

To add to this morning's blog, here's a piece from Joanna Blythman in the Sunday Herald which made me cheer (this isn't fiction citizens, Caltongate was for real):

for more details read http://www.eh8.org.uk/

Grand failure offers green light for green space

REJOICE!

CALTONGATE,Edinburgh's grandiose £300 million development project, looks dead in the water because the company behind it, Mountgrange, has run out of dosh. The company has clocked up a loss of £24m and is so indebted that there is "a material uncertainty that casts doubts over the company's ability to continue as a going concern". As someone who always thought the Caltongate project was a crock of ordure, I won't shed a tear if Mountgrange goes down the pan, taking its ill-conceived plan with it.The Caltongate scheme, in the now-ubiquitous phoney language employed by puffed-up councillors, posturing architects who fancy themselves as latter-day Le Corbusiers, and Flash Harry speculators, was to contain "an eclectic mix of offices, retail, residential, leisure and hotel facilities". It was to add a "vibrant and attractive new business and cultural quarter" to the capital. What that meant, in practical terms, was historic buildings and people's homes being demolished to make way for five-star hotels, a second conference centre, more yuppie flats, the inevitable supermarket, a "signature" office building (spare us the pretension) and yet another coven of Claire's Accessories, Clinton Cards and Costas - as if we needed another dose of property developer's quack miracle regenerating formula...

Continued here:

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.2489244.0.grand_failure_offers_green_light_for_green_space.php

Edinburgh Community Backgreens Association:

http://www.ecba.org.uk/home.aspx