Its snow more for Caltongate...

View yesterday over the Canongate Venture, you can see the New Street site to the right...and unfortunately you can see the mother ship of the cooncil to the left in the 2nd photo

See latest on the news that council are finally considering what the public have been saying for months...more snowy photos later...and great news here for Lancaster, check out the news on this blog.

Caltongate Hokey Cokey

Well you just could not make it up, you just couldn't.  After saying just last week "we've got a buyer - honestly, we really have", it turns out the council are looking at renting out their work/office space at Canongate Venture and their empty flats in the Canongate!  It's Caltongate Christmas Hokey Cokey - the council are "in - out - shake it all about - you do the hokey cokey then you turn around, that's what it's all about -see!"

Check out tonight's story in the Evening News here


However questions still need to be asked, why then last month did council high heid yins tell Old Town residents that the tenement flats were not loosing any money because they were on a "void account"?

Mr Lowrie's nose will be getting bigger - the council still owns the majority of the land, the buildings and the homes, they do not belong to the administrators.  They hope that voiding them will make the Bank of Scotland's gap site more attractive to a developer, and that is what DeLoitte the administrator hope too i.e. look at all the viable land/buildings around the gap site, what a lovely opportunity.


The council should admit that they made a terrible mistake to be taken in my confidence tricksters against the community and conservationists who tried every trick in the book to tell them that Caltongate was a dystopia and a con.



With hundreds of thousands of pounds spent every month on putting homeless people in bed and breakfast accommodation - putting the flats back into use even as temporary accommodation will be welcomed. Though in the longer term the Republic would like to see secure tenures in the Macrae tenements.

Caltongate Panto to return for the next decade

Yes, hold the front page...Jim Lowrie rings The Scotsman and hey presto his makey uppy story appears as if by magic, with no word from the others that Brian Ferguson had to ring to make it appear there was some truth in the story...well it is panto time, remember this panto dame from December 2006, oh another chair of the "we love our property developer pals" planning committee at the comedy city chambers...

So back for another season is the old favourite THE COUNCIL`S NEW MASTERPLAN

Get your panstick back out Trevor..

Twelve Days of Christmas 2009

It is almost that time of year once again, time for a trip down memory lane........or have they privatised that now???

A SENIOR city councillor has landed himself in hot water by making an obscene one-fingered gesture to carol-singing protesters.
Remember this from December 2006?
Full story here -Councillor in One Finger Salute

Below is one of the carols adapted and sung by a group of Save Our Old Town Campaigners as councillors, architects and other wanabees entered a champagne reception hosted by Caltongate Developers Mountgrange at The Fruitmarket Gallery on Market Street, close to the proposed development.

Mountgrange director Manish Chande, lied in the press in May 2008. He claimed that the wife of Trevor Davies had verbal abuse shouted at her from one of the carol singing campaingers . We are still awaiting a retraction of this blatent lie.Full story here

On the twelfth day of Christmas my council sent to me :

Twelve diggers digging

Eleven planners planning
Ten global chain stores
Nine builders building

Eight PR spinners Seven legal experts


Six cows a conning

A five star hotel
Four wrecking balls

Three cheap homes

Two office blocks

and Mountgrange now in admin....is...tra...tion

Silent Walk for Justice 4th Dec Royal Mile 3pm

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the late Annie Jansson who along with many others are taking part in the second year of The Silent Walk for Justice this Friday the 4 Dec 2009 , from St Giles to the Parliament. Assemble 3pm onwards.

We met Maria and Guje in May last year when one of the Common Good campaigners introduced them to us during The Canongate Project. It was important for them to meet people who live and or work in The Old Town, where Annie spent the last few months of her life.

Maria and Guje are campaining to find out the truth about what happened to Maria`s daughter Annie who was found dead on the shore in Prestwick 4 dec 2005. Annie worked at the Scottish Whisky Experience (at the Castle) during the summer 2005.

She loved the Old Town of Edinburgh . Her mother Maria and friend Guje know that Annie visited shops and restaurants etc along the Royal Mile and are convinced that there are people out there that Annie spoke with and we hope to find them since they can have very important information regarding Annies last days in life.

On Friday the 2nd Dec 2005 Annie visited some friends at the Whisky Experience, no one knows where Annie went after she left her friends at the Experience.

Hopefully some one will remember something.

New Old Town Trust Meeting Tonight

The Mock funeral for Venice

The republic were sent this Press release from the new Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust, lets hope it can make a difference..get along there tonight if you can, its stopped raining...

Will a New Community Trust Help Stop Edinburgh's Old Town from Dying?

This is one of the questions that the newly established Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust , will be asking at its first public meeting this Thursday 26th November at Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge from 7.30pm

Catriona Grant a local resident and director of the trust, said today "Last week in Venice the last remaining long term residents held a mock funeral to dramatise the flight of residents from their city's heart. We may be holding one here soon, if we do not take action now. Like the Venetians we need affordable and also non HMO sized family housing, which encourages people, especially families, to stay or move into the area. Like Venice, prices are steep in the historic centre, and many landlords demand much more money, by advertising over the Internet to short stay visitors than long-term rentals to residents."

She added "We however as residents then have to live with the consequence of these which are often large hen and stag parties. We have become unpaid concierges and are disturbed at all hours, it is only because of a loophole in the law that they are turning the Old Town into one big unregulated hotel. There are health and safety issues that no one has addressed yet, as well as the obvious almost daily loss of long term inhabitants, with the knock on effect of losing local shops and perhaps even the last remaining school, along with other vital community facilities which ensure a living neighbourhood."

Sean Bradley, a director of the trust and Chair of the Grassmarket Residents' Association said today

"A community's greatest asset is its residents. The Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust is an historic opportunity for the people of the Old Town to shape its future for the benefit of all - that means improving opportunities and the quality of life for everyone"

Last year's community research, The Canongate Project , showed that more support and facilities are needed for the residential population if a ‘living city’ is to be maintained in the Old Town. The research also highlighted the need for affordable housing, family sized homes, a better mix of local shops, community facilities, play space, public toilets, safe and usable green public space, along with residents having a say in future developments in the Old Town.

The meeting is to include discussion on the trusts possible projects and Ian Cooke, Director of The Development Trusts Association Scotland will give an introduction to the fast growing network of development trusts across Scotland, and highlight the real differences they are making to the communities in which they are based.

Catriona ends “So we are urging those who live in the area and outwith to come along and become a member of the trust. Help shape the future projects and the role the trust can play in an area, which is becoming increasingly dominated by tourism and the night-time economy often at the expense of those who call it home”

Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust Meeting Details -
The Public Meeting of The newly formed Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust which also covers the Dumbiedykes area is on

Thursday 26th November `09 Augustine United Church

41 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venice
The Development Trust Association Scotland
Party Flats Edinburgh
The Canongate Project

Head of Planning to be investigated on Trump Application

Remember this from 2006

The Press and Journal reported on Monday that

"It is understood the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) could meanwhile launch an investigation into Aberdeenshire Council’s most senior planner.
The RTPI is examining a complaint from former member Bob Marshall, of Glasgow, claiming that planning director Christine Gore failed to act with integrity and independence while handling the Trump Organisation’s application."

and it reported that

"Almost three-quarters of Scots oppose using compulsory purchase orders to pave the way for the Trump golf resort, according to research.
A YouGov poll has revealed that 74% were against the use of the powers to help the tycoon buy more land for the £1billion complex at the Menie Estate at Balmedie.
Just 13% supported the idea."

so perhaps there is some justice and integrity left in our wee country?

check out a North East blog National Disgrace, Scoundrel and Extremist and what a town planner thinks

Andrew Holmes slates UNESCO

The former director of city development who is out to pasture in Perthshire, continues letter writing

His latest letter below is in today's Guardian -

"Jonathan Glancey in his article refers to the Caltongate development in Edinburgh. This involved the demolition of a disused bus garage on the site of a former gasworks, a 1950s council car park and a turn of the 19th-century former school. Only the school had any statutory listing, and that the lowest category, and its removal was agreed by Historic Scotland. The whole development conformed to long-established and sensitive height limits for the area and would have created a powerful regeneration focus.

I was the then director of development for the city of Edinburgh council throughout the planning process up to the recommendation to grant consent and the endorsement of that recommendation by the council planning committee. At no time in that process did Unesco approach me or seek to obtain any meaningful information regarding the proposals. The concept of world heritage sites is eminently supportable. The policing by a self-appointed elite with communication limited to its own coterie is not. The failure to proceed with the development is, like so many others, down to the market and not the views of Unesco."

Andrew Holmes
Pitlochry, Perthshire

Now I wonder if Mr Holmes can help answering these questions? Now he's got so much free time on his hands...

1. Complaints have been made to both the Competition DG and the Internal market DG of the EU Commission, because of the extent that Mountgrange Caltongate Ltd may have been provided with privileged access and offered exclusive consideration in pursuance of its commercial objectives, it follows that competing bidders, both actual and potential, have been unlawfully discriminated against, and public resources unlawfully exposed to risk in this case. Caltongate Given A Black Mark

2. A clear breach of Article 7 of the applicable code of conduct as set by the Standards Commission (Scotland) in the case of Planning Committee convenor Jim Lowrie.The code states that a breach has been committed where a planning committee member expresses a prior public view ahead of a decision being taken, or where a member has lobbied, either overtly or covertly, for a particular interest group or to the commercial benefit of a particular applicant. In Article 11th Oct 07 it says

“City planning leader Cllr Jim Lowrie said: "I really don't feel that we are that far behind Glasgow in terms of the speed of the planning process, but the problem in Edinburgh is the number of historic buildings and the need to address heritage concerns. "However, we don't want to fall behind and it's very important we listen to organisations like the chamber. "We have to get big developments like Caltongate up and running as soon as we can."Given the views expressed by Councillor Lowrie in the Edinburgh Evening News of 11th October 2007 there was clear evidence of such a breach in the public domain, and in the circumstances the convenor should have been removed from his office with immediate effect. The Council’s failure to apply article 7 of the code in this instance would appear to call into question the validity of the vote and subsequent award of the planning consent to Mountgrange Caltongate Ltd, and should be reviewed as a matter of urgency. The economic relationship between the council and the developer in this case has the characteristics of an institutionalised public-private partnership.

3. The recent report in The Times about Mountgrange`s donation to the Labour Party,Mountgrange donate to Labour Partywhich questions the fact that the Department of Trade and Industry, when it was being headed by the present Chancellor, Alistair Darling, assisted with the funding for an investigation into the project’s proposed heating system

.4. The statements of Historic Scotland chief inspector, Malcolm Cooper given his relationship with Mountgrange’s Mr Manish Chande Historic Scotland and Caltongate

. The actions of Donald Anderson during his period as council leader should also be scrutinised, given his individual relationship with Mountgrange’s Mr Manish Chande.Champagne Donation Under Fire

6. The very real prospect of the loss of World Heritage status for the city, see Dresden’s recent experience, arising from a proposal to build a bridge over the River Elbe.More Here

7. And a question that so many people are asking - why is it that one architect, Allan Murray, seems to be involved with virtually every key project within the World Heritage Site, as well as Caltongate?Caltongate or Edinburgh Must Die

8. The pro-active role of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce in promoting the developmentMountgrange`s Manish Chande is head of their property portfolio group see page 4 of their magazineChambers Magazine and in Evening News Today Ron Hewitt of Chambers Roots For Caltongate

Down Memory Lane

Yes, it was a year ago that the UNESCO delegation visited our fine city, in this weeks Guardian there is an article looking at Bath and her struggle to keep her outstanding universal values in the face of the onslaught of inappropriate development. Article here

The following is from the piece on Edinburgh

Dresden proves that Unesco has teeth; the city's loss of status may well affect tourist revenue and inward investment. And this year, a Unesco report on Edinburgh (its Old and New Towns have heritage status), has prompted the collapse of two new developments: a 17-storey hotel, and Caltongate, a complex incorporating a hotel, conference centre, 200 flats and offices, which would have entailed the demolition of listed buildings. True, the recession has played a part, too: the developer for Caltongate, Mountgrange Capital, has gone into receivership. But if the development has been knocked on the head, Unesco has played its part.

BBC piece here from March 2009 Caltongate Developers in administration

Architects Awarding Other Architects

One of the shortlisted below... Yes its that time of the year again, like Christmas you can't escape....The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland has shortlisted 11 buildings for its eighth annual contest.

We don't have time on this busy Friday here in the republic to write anymore, but instead think this sums up what we we think and could not put it better ourselves..

Ego of an architect
By Chris Schuler source here

Poor old Norman Foster. As my colleague Adrian Hamilton reports, the great architect has to go to China to find people who appreciate his genius and won't tie him up with tiresome planning regulations.

For another example of the bone-headed hubris of the celebrity architect, look no further than Richard Rogers’ website, and its description of his Coin Street scheme. Back in the early Eighties, Rogers proposed to demolish most of the buildings on London’s South Bank between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges, and replace them with a 20-storey office block and a chain of shopping malls.

The scheme was successfully resisted by local residents backed by the then leader of the GLC, Ken Livingstone (before his conversion, as London Mayor, to the cult of the skyscraper). Had Rogers’ plan gone ahead, the Oxo Tower and Gabriel’s Wharf would have disappeared, and there can be little doubt that similar development would have taken place east of Blackfriars Bridge, with the result that we would have no Tate Modern and no Shakespeare’s Globe. One of the most charming and best-loved corners of central London, which attracts millions of visitors a year, would be a glass and steel wasteland. But Rogers still doesn’t get it. His website laments the failure of “one of the great unbuilt schemes of modern London”. No doubt a bit of Chinese-style planning would have seen off those Nimbys in short order.

The trouble with modernist architecture is that it one of the failed utopias of 19th-century central European intellectualism - just like communism, in fact. Walter Gropius, trapped in a collapsed building during the First World War, associated the decorative exuberance of 19th-century architecture with the hypocrisy and decadence that gave rise to the war. In its place, he would establish a new purity in which ornament was banished in favour of the lofty interplay volume and form. This utopia might never have got of the ground had Gropius’s protégé Mies van der Rohe not fled to the USA to establish what became known as the International School, happily meeting the developers’ need for maximum floor space at minimum cost, and their clients’ desire to flaunt their corporate machismo with massive steel and glass erections.
Like all utopian projects, modernist architecture is fundamentally authoritarian, informed by top-down planning, an excessive love of order and an almost pathological hatred for the higgledy-piggledy, organic growth that characterises all well-loved cityscapes.

In the 1920s, le Corbusier planned to demolish the entire Marais district of Paris; after gravitating to the extreme right during the 1930s, he worked for Petain’s Vichy regime. What it refuses to acknowledge is that most people find blank surfaces alienating. Put them in a minimalist masterpiece by Erno Goldfinger, and they’ll head straight down to B&Q for a fanlight door and some fake leaded windows. The architects bewail popular taste, just as communists attributed their failure to capture the hearts and minds of the workers to “false consciousness”. That is why modernism has left a legacy of failed housing projects and urban blight

Dear Santa....

It`s that time of year again, the children are asking if it`s time to write to Santa ...in today's Scotsman the Haymarket Howler architect is already trying to get his demands in early. With a new arrival at the Cockburn Association, Santa and his little helpers in the council may not be able to give him what he wants. And he will have this former judge to hold him to account once again...


We thought we could help out with fulfilling not only this architect`s wants this Christmas but help all those in crisis with no real buildings to knock down, lives to upset and big phallic ugly high rise towers to build in this recession.



So for all you wee boys and girls, you know who you all - you architects, you developers, you in the Chamber of Commerce, you in the council planning and others departments, you in the government, you the PR Spin doctors, even you American tycoons (though there may not be a unspolit stretch of coastline on the board for grabs) here`s something to keep you all happy from Santa this year, you can even play online....while we can all sleep soundly in our beds...and with a tag line of

“Property Empire Building on an Unimaginable Scale”

we should have a little rest from their greedy nonsense demands on our city

Keep on Blogging in the Free World

The government recently rejected the Haymarket plans that went against the council's own planning policies.

Remember Jim Lowrie in action on the planning committee here on youtube

In the republic we hear that some say we shouldn't have a dig at those who have chosen to represent us in local or national government, well in a democracy that is what happens. They are not beyond reproach and will never be, otherwise we will be living in a ??

In the news yesterday was the story of a blogger causing a council to resign, this blogger here explains all and this is the blog here Muck&Brass

What drove someone to do this? A clear, transparent planning system?

It should have been me!

above the abandoned plans for Haymarket


This piece in today's Scotsman made us here in the republic think of this clip from the Vicar of Dibley..you have to laugh

Remembering the Haymarket Horror

some quotes below from a piece in the Scotsman today

Jim Lowrie is the current convener of planning at theCity of Edinburgh Council

"WE WERE very disappointed that the planning committee's decision on Haymarket was overturned, but I don't think we have anything to apologise for."

Malcolm Fraser's contribution to the failed Caltongate

Malcolm Fraser is the architect behind developments including the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Dance Base

"We have to find a way forward between the anodyne and the hubristic".

No quote from the hotel architect Richard Murphy though..but here is one from a piece he did for The Independent a few years ago about his home

"If I was to live anywhere else, I think it would definitely be another city like Barcelona, where they really appreciate architects and the resulting architecture is a joy and beauty to live with."

perhaps he has moved already?

Haymarket Howler RIP

What a Halloween we are enjoying....

"No, the decison is the wrong one ministers"

Remember this article from Building Design just before the recession really kicked in, where Haymarket Hotel Architect Richard Murphy said this -

"Apart from building my own house, my ambition in Edinburgh is to build one big public building before I die"

This Scotsman is no too happy either about the decision..

Haymarket Horror Dead

Happy Halloween News

news just in see bbc news

Local Chamber of Horrors not happy!

Congratulations to all those who gave up their time

Plans for a 17-storey luxury hotel in Edinburgh have been rejected by Scottish ministers.
The futuristic building at Haymarket was the centrepiece of a £250m redevelopment of the area.
The decision has been described as "an enormous setback" by the city's Chamber of Commerce.
The proposals were initially approved by the city council but have now been thrown out by ministers following a public inquiry.
The proposal, by Tiger Developments, would have seen a leaf-shaped hotel built on a gap site next to the railway station.

When the plans were approved in June last year, Tom Buchanan, the council's economic development convenor, described it as a significant regeneration project for an area "in much need of redevelopment".

However, following Tuesday's announcement, Graham Birse of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce said: "By reaching this conclusion ministers have done nothing to encourage sustainable development in our capital city at a time when the longest recession in living memory is making deep and painful inroads into our economy.
"This project was ready to roll, and offered £250m investment, 2,150 jobs and a five star hotel brand new to Edinburgh in Intercontinental Hotels.
"It is an enormous set-back to the city's recovery and slap in the face to the efforts that went into delivering this project locally."

Common Good in Scotland - Time to Reclaim!

Has time come for common ground to be reclaimed by its local communities? This is the title of article in yesterdays Sunday Herald. see below for article. There is common good land in the land earmarked for development in Edinburgh`s Old Town.

Scottish Parliament Evidence Giving Sessions on The Common Good
Link to all archived evidence and papers from sessions & Official Report


See Common Good Day Scotland posting for more information and links on Common Good

Published on 25 Oct 2009 In The Sunday Herald by David Ross

It could be a hill, a moor or a village green and town hall; fisheries or grazing rights; even a prestigious city centre site.

All over Scotland there are still thousands of parcels of the different forms of common land and other historical assets, which local people effectively own and which could be multi-million pound earners for their communities, according to one of Scotland’s leading land-reform campaigners.
However, Andy Wightman warns it is time they were reclaimed. Too many were lost down the centuries, unlawfully assumed by private landowners or transferred by corrupt public officials.
“All of Scotland was once held in common,” he said. “The process of privatisation and the development of the system of land law pushed common land rights to the margins and still, today, the existence of such rights is often dismissed out of hand by legal authorities.
“Enough evidence, however, has come to light over the past few years to demonstrate that such rights do still exist and that diligent research can help to recover and assert communal rights in land.”

Wightman has produced a 94-page guide to help local people identify their historical assets and establish their legal rights to them. This so they can benefit financially from any development proposed, or make their own plans.

He points to the likes of Waverley Market in Edinburgh, which could have been earning the city’s common good fund more than £1million a year in rent, plus half the £37.5m earned by selling the leasehold, if the council had handled things differently. But all the fund has received since 1982 was 23p.

In another example from Carluke, local people missed out on potential wind-farm revenues because they were unaware of rights they had in 86 acres of common land.

In contrast, there are long-standing success stories such as the Dornoch Firth Mussel Fishery which has been owned as a common resource by the people of Tain since 1612, when the ownership of the mussel scalps and the right to fish them was bequeathed to the Easter Ross community by James the Sixth.

Mr Wightman, author of the seminal work Who Owns Scotland and founder of the website of the same name, says he is convinced that it is an idea whose time has come, not least because of fears the community land-ownership movement that led to the purchase of Assynt, Eigg, Knoydart and Gigha has run our of financial and political steam.
But he stresses this is as much to do with the future as with the past.

“The issue of community land and other rights is especially relevant following the award of the Nobel Prize for Economics to Elinor Ostrom, an American academic who has championed the commons and demonstrated that, despite what is often believed, common resources such as land, water and fisheries can be sustainably managed by communal co-operative institutions,” he said.

“Indeed, she has gone beyond that to show that, in many cases, the commons provide a better model for resource management than either private or state ownership. At a time when the world is crying out for alternative
ways forward it is encouraging to see that the commons are being recognised as one of the success stories and not, as so often has been the case, an anachronism that should be replaced by private or state interests.

“The relevance of this in a Scottish context is twofold. First there is a lot of land still held in common across the country that has been forgotten about.
“The danger is that if common rights are not asserted, they will meet the same fate as so much land in Scotland and be appropriated into private hands.
“Community Land Rights is a manual designed to provide communities with the research tools they need to identify, assert and recover their common heritage.

“Second, much more needs to be done to assert common land rights and promote them as an important part of community regeneration in Scotland.”

Andy Wightman's site here www.scottishcommons.org/

National Poetry Day - "By Leaves we Live"

Today is National Poetry Day, here in the Old Town of Edinburgh we are celebrating with a poem from Patrick Geddes who lived here and worked to make it a better place to live

'By Leaves We Live’

The poem's title greets visitors to the Scottish Poetry Library just off the Canongate

“This is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small,

and all dependent on the leaves.

By leaves we live.

Some people have strange ideas that they live by money.

They think energy is generated by the circulation of coins.

Whereas the world is mainly a vast leaf colony,

growing on and forming a leafy soil,

not a mere mineral mass:

and we live not by the jingling of our coins,

but by the fullness of our harvests.”

- Patrick Geddes

Members of Save Our Old Town ended their deputation to the council planning committee on the 9th March 2006 with the poem, when they asked for a longer public consultation period on the Caltongate Masterplan and for consideration of the community alternative strategy.

A close up showing the leaves in the SOOT Banner

The SOOT Banner was begun during The Canongate Project last year and will be making her public debut this Satrday. People involved in the Save Our Old Town Campaign have joined with others to support the need to celebrate and remember the work of women in the struggle for equality and universal sufferage.

Come and Join the Gude Cause March through Edinburgh Saturday 10th October 2009

more details here on joining march

Liverpool is the New Dubai

see more at skysraper city

When Liverpool council were offered to twin with Dubai, they thought why stop at that and why not go the whole hog and look like their new twin city...

With Lyon already being recreated in Dubai, there are rumours that all the homes demolished in the pathfinder project being rebuilt there, so expats there can amble down the terraced streets in a Northern England theme park currently being built there..

Liverpool Preservation Trust Blogspot

Pathfinder Liverpool

This Is Edinburgh not Dubai

The following is from a piece in Saturday's Guardian Magazine by Andy Beckett full article here

After the fall

Banking turned Edinburgh into a boom town. What has happened to the city since the bubble burst?

"Besides, not everyone was comfortable with the boom-time Edinburgh. Right behind the stalled Caltongate development in the Old Town is the Carson Clark Gallery, a lovely labyrinth of a shop that has been selling period maps and prints of the city since 1969. Co-owner Paul Clark, an Edinburgh bohemian of the old school, with faintly piratical beard and slicked-back long hair, is delighted that Caltongate is not going ahead. "Do we need another five-star hotel?" he asks rhetorically. "Forget this luxury nonsense. This is not Dubai. These developments are the slums of the future. You can already see red rust dribbling out from the drainpipes of some of them." How has his shop done during the recession? "Up and down. But we needed a bit of a leveller in Edinburgh.""

Below the Macrae Tenements that were to make way for the 5- star hotel

and now for some good news...

The Light, previously derelict, but now repaired and converted to commercial uses. A landmark building on the border between Shoreditch and The City

In London local campaigners formed OPEN Shoreditch in January 2008 to resist inappropriate development in the area which offered insufficient community benefits and which threatened some of its unique buildings, the settings of its conservation areas and aspects of its local economy. You can read further details of the campaign here and here.
Save Shoreditch website

Sounds familiar doesn't it? But sometimes we have to remind ourselves that good things do happen..even though its not over

watch this space...........

watch this, it is sickening to watch, especially when you hear them talk about how to get rid of people who won't sell to Trump, falling into peat bogs??

Spies, Statues and CPOs

A statue of Trump in Edinburgh?

Sign petiton to stop him clearing people from their homes

Anti Trump Protests held across Scotland see STV piece here


Remember CPOs would have to be enforced to enable Caltongate to happen.
see item 4.1 in this document by council
see more news at tripping up trump on spying story...

Malcolm "award winning hypocrite" Fraser

You can imagine our surprise when we read that one of Caltongate's architects, Malcolm Fraser is hitting out at his own inconstistency in approaching green building.....

Read article here -

headline -

Malcolm Fraser hits out at his inconsistent approach to "green building"

Then we read again and he was hitting out generally at green building approaches, which he must feel has nothing to do with him.

"Particular scorn was reserved for the practice of demolishing existing buildings, often justified by touting the sustainable credentials in their replacements, but this was rubbished by Fraser who said: “the idea that you take a 100 year old building, cowp it in a landfill site replace it with cardboard and that will save the planet is extraordinary”.
Oh, the cheek of the man....does he think people have short memories...

you were all for knocking down this 100 year old building and putting it in a cowp!

Canongate Venture to be demolished for conference centre

remember this green building he was going to dump on the the world ?

Remember the buildings he was supporting the demolition of and the views he wanted to ruin? see here

Perhaps if Mr Fraser admitted his past intentions and ate a piece of humble pie, perhaps people would believe his words he so freely spouts nowadays, now that the hey day of anything can be demolished in the name of economic benefit is over and attending developer's champagne receptions..