Independent Republic of the Canongate

Scotsman now hoping Canadians will build their dream Caltongate

2011-02-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Caltongate - 'It's a golden opportunity for the

Published Date: 31 January 2011

Just when we feared Caltongate might start rivalling Greenside Place, Castle Terrace and all those other past contenders to be Edinburgh's longest-running gap-site, fresh hope arrives that building work might finally begin.

Canadian investors are said to be keen to pick up the existing plans to turn the ugly hole in the ground into a hotel, shops and homes.

That is fantastic news at a time when every city in the UK is crying out for someone - anyone - with the financial muscle to make something happen on this scale.

Thanks to the imminent £850 million reinvention of the St James Centre, the Caltongate site is the last remaining major blight on our city centre.

We know that restrictive lending by Britain's high street banks means there will be few, if any, UK investors ready to step into the breach if for any reason this deal cannot be sealed.

One of the potential sticking points is understood to be the Bank of Scotland's understandable reluctance to write off too much of the £74m it is owed following the collapse of previous Caltongate developer Mountgrange.

The bank has its own pressures to deal with of course, and it is presumably too much to hope that the wider interests of its home city will remain important to its thinking.

But this is a golden opportunity for Edinburgh which would reap dividends across the city. As such, it is one we might all regret letting pass if we do not grab it with both hands.

Here is their propaganda trying to convince themselves and others Rescue Mission to save Caltongate and Canadian Investor blah blah

Caltongate Council Panto back for another season..........2010

2010-10-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

"Its not happening because the price is too high" Tom Buchanan the city`s economic leader (so we are told)
but remember this is the man who thought the Haymarket Horror that died this time last year was going to be good for the city..

Maybe Mr Buchanan should take a reality check....this recent letter to The Scotsman on an earlier Evening News story would be a good place to start...

Don't hold your breath for latest pie-in-sky proposal

Published Date: 09 October 2010

A NEW World Trade Centre building is heading our way, according to development and business leaders (Evening News, October 7).

Excuse me for holding my breath, but I'll believe it when I see it. And the same goes for the skyscraper hotel at Haymarket, the giant Ferris wheel at the Waterfront, Caltongate and so many other pie-in-the-sky ideas which have never got off the grouWe're in the middle of the worst recession in decades, we can't afford to provide decent schools to prepare our kids for their future, and yet our council and business chiefs will gladly get together to discuss ideas that will never, ever see the light of day.

If only we had some way of harnessing all the empty words spoken by these daydreamers, we'd have enough hot air to keep everyone in the city warm through the coming winter.
C Darmody, Bruntsfield Road, Edinburgh

Good bye Priscilla

2010-09-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

Priscilla's last flight (as an air steward)

Sadly on Wednesday 8th September, our dear friend Priscilla Heaton Armstrong died in a hospice. Priscilla was a Director and founder of the Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust. She was the Treasurer of Save Our Old Town, Secretary of the Blackfriars Residents Association and member of the Old Town Community Council.

She was dedicated to the Old Town and took representing the residents and neighbours seriously.

Her humour and kindness will always be remembered, she was a wonderful host and always friendly and cared very deeply about her friends, family and neighbours.

Priscilla lead a full life as a rare breeds farmer, a land lady, a hotelier and as a British Airways Air Steward. She travelled the world and had many wonderful stories.

Priscilla will be sorely missed. However she will always be remembered in the flowers, plants and trees of Coiynie House Close. Our heart felt condolences go to Priscilla's family and friends.

Read more about the garden at Coiynie House Close here

Edinburgh Council gives up on Caltongate

2010-08-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Evil caltongate, the wet dream of developers

After the community campaigned for years saying that the Caltongate was the wrong development. The council have admitted defeat! They have cancelled the land sales and giving back deposits. You can read more on the Independent republic of the Canongate about the history of the Save Our Old Town campaign.

See the news on STV

The reality is that charlatan developers scammed £70 million from HBOS and convinced the council to give their dystopia planning permission which meant knocking down listed building, chucking out tenants from the business properies and homes and demolishing the bus garage that was on the site causing the gap site.

You can read more on the Guardian's local blog here

Local people have set up a Community Development Trust in order to deal with this issue because we predicted this would happen hopefully we can get to work bringing back the blighted area into a vibrant place to be, the Waverley Valley deserves this

The gap site left behind by developers who were given permission to demolish buildings, they walk away owing the bank £70 million and we get left with a hole in the ground

Celebrate Caltongate Passing.......

2010-08-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

"Controversial Caltongate project scrapped"

"Edinburgh City Council has admitted defeat and withdrawn its assets following a failure to find a new developer willing to take on the scheme." see more at STV

Ground Control Author in Edinburgh

2010-06-09T02:23:00.000-07:00

GROUND CONTROL Seminar, Edinburgh
Saturday 17 July 2010
1pm to 4pm
Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, 5 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh

As a lead-in to the Patrick Geddes Autumn Meeting on the theme of 'Re-thinking the City' to be held in October, Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust and Edinburgh World Heritage Trust are hosting a seminar led by Anna Minton on Saturday 17th July on the themes raised in her book Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City - see below.
Aimed at Edinburgh-based community activists, this will be a rare opportunity to focus on issues affecting all communities in the city, and a chance for citizens to articulate what kind of city they want to live in.

how to book see Edinburgh Old Development Trust Website

GROUND CONTROL
Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City
ANNA MINTON

www.annaminton.com

The Missing Millions??

2010-06-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

The Scottish Review online today is this article by Common Good Petitioner David Harvie -

"The 1850s and 60s were momentous decades in Glasgow. In the 1840s, the city had suffered a cholera epidemic and the poverty-stricken citizens had been provoked into large-scale bread riots. But Glasgow picked itself up and dusted itself down, and a powerful drive of civic optimism took over. Employment rose as the city council intervened to order advances in its infrastructure. Improved water supplies, public parks, wide streets and better sewage, drainage and housing were all priority developments. A Glasgow Police Act of 1866 was a positive influence, as was the City Improvement Act of the same year, which led to huge developments in housing and health. The prosperity was not instant, nor yet for everyone. Bad housing and health were still endemic, and while there seemed to be plenty of work, the 'hire and fire' ethos was still the norm. Many workers were forced to move from farm to factory to construction site to shipyard in the constant effort to maintain a position on the treadmill of 'cheap, plentiful labour'. The city serviced an enormous army of people who arrived from the Highlands and Islands, Ireland and elsewhere; all were anxious to prosper – one Scot in five lived in Glasgow. Nevertheless, the city's drive for self-improvement was to have enormous success and led to a world-wide reputation for municipal organisation.Glasgow's citizens recognised and cherished something of enormous value that we have lost since these harsher days – a genuine sense of civic pride that was rooted in the Scots tradition of The Common Good. This is an ancient and uniquely Scottish concept confirming the continuing public ownership of assets, both heritable and moveable, which has been lamentably mismanaged and compromised by many of Scotland's local authorities in recent decades. The property of Scotland's Common Good funds is legally held by statute in trusteeship by local councillors on behalf of the local population; such property must by law be registered, accounted and valued separately from all other local authority accounts; it is not to be equated as 'belonging to the council' – it belongs to the local communities. Councils, while holding legal title, are constrained in how the property is administered and disposed of, since it is held in trust for the residents of the former burghs. Unfortunately, there are conflicting attitudes pervading the issue. In 1914, Glasgow's town clerk, noting the city's 'parental view of its duty to the community', confirmed the opinion of the commissioners on municipal corporations in Scotland of 1835, when they stated that 'the common property is truly an estate held in trust by the community'. Recently however, the City of Glasgow's director of finance boldly told the city council that, 'the common good is seen as corporate property of the council'. But Lord Drummond Young, in the Court of Session in 2003 pointed out that 'the town council or other local authority is regarded in law as simply the manager of the property, as representing the community' [Lord Drummond Young in Andrew Wilson and Others v Inverclyde Council 2003]. Some Common Good funds are well-endowed; others ought to be. Seven hundred years ago Robert The Bruce granted rights to Aberdeen over his favourite hunting-grounds; today, that gift alone is worth £35 million. Inverness had similar historical donations now worth £25 million – and bringing in an annual income of nearly £2 million. It is sadly likely, however, that some councils have transferred assets to other accounts (possibly resulting in inappropriate or even illegal disposal) or otherwise 'lost' them. Record-keeping has been poor, thus making legitimate inquiry difficult. Glasgow has recently revealed an astonishing lack of heritable common good assets (buildings, land, parks, municipal undertakings, etc), with no mention of all kinds of assets recorded in the past, and no moveable assets whatsoever (regalia, furniture, works of art, books and all manner of gifts and deposits). In response to FoI inquiries by Mary E Mackenzie, the city council is blocking further information on the bizarre grounds that just to search their title deeds would cost in excess of £4 million. In 1914, John Lindsay the then town clerk of Glasgow listed many of the estate lands, docks and harbours, properties, rights, bonds and other assets within the Common Good. The list contains some lucrative surprises, such as the entire municipal transport undertaking – declared to be an asset of the Common Good by an Act of Parliament in 1909. Lindsay noted that the total value of Common Good assets was over £6.5 million (at 1914 values); what can have happened in the intervening years to prevent the significant increase in that value? No doubt some physical assets will have disappeared or been legitimately disposed of, but what happened to their value? The thing to remember is that £6.5 million in 1914 is worth several hundred million pounds at today's values, and should have been increasing over the period. The question therefore remains: what has happened to the accumulated value of many hundred million pounds worth of assets belonging to the common good? In the early 1900s, a visiting American professor of civic administration, described Glasgow as 'in many ways the most aggressively efficient city in Great Britain'. Frederic Clemson Howe was a Cleveland lawyer who became a progressive reformer in the fields of municipal planning, taxation and democratic control. He had visited and studied in detail numerous European cities, and Glasgow came as a puzzling but satisfying revelation to him. He was deeply impressed by the fact that the city had regained control of all of its civic services from the stranglehold of an unregulated private sector. This popular move – so at odds with our own experiences of ALEOs ('arm's-length organisations' such as Culture and Sport Glasgow) and other managerial sleight of hand – was achieved not only without a whiff of corruption, but with laudable evidence of efficiency, democratic openness and modest financial profit. For Howe, transparency and accountability were paramount, and the outcome received his unreserved response: 'Enthusiasm and interest, devotion and pride – these are the characteristics of Glasgow citizenship. I have talked with the heads of the city departments, with a score of town councillors, with police officers and fire officials, with clerks, bathhouse custodians, and conductors on the tram-cars – with all sorts of men, Tories and Liberals, Radicals and Socialists, from the Lord Provost down to the cab-driver. And this is the only citizenship I have been able to find.' ['The British City – The Beginnings of Democracy' by Frederic Clemson Howe, New York, 1907, p.163-4] Andy Wightman and James Perman, who have conducted the most prodigious research into these issues, concluded that 'the estimated value of the common good assets that should be held on behalf of communities to generate wealth and community benefit might easily stand at around £1.8 billion'. ['Common Good Land in Scotland – a Review and Critique' 2005, p.23] The total value they could identify from Scottish council figures was one tenth of that estimate. When it comes to much of the property that is held in our disparate Common Good accounts, it is often local individuals and organisations that have most knowledge, interest and concern for its protection. Many of these people today have to take the financial risk of facing their local authority across courtrooms in order to try to protect what they regard as rightfully theirs. Were the entire accounting system to be completely overhauled and improved, and recompense made for past mismanagement, there would be hugely beneficial outcomes for civic pride and revitalisation. That would surely placate the disturbed ghost of the progressive Frederic Clemson Howe – and not least the people of Scotland.
David Harvie was one of three individuals who represented petitions on Common Good Assets in the Scottish Parliament in 2009 [Petitions 875, 896 and 961]

See Scottish Commons for timeline on the petitons progress to date

and see Common Good Watch on latest news

The Great Calton & Gate Swindle continues

2010-04-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, The Development that incriminates it`s fans..., is back this season with a new song for them "dig, dig, dig, dig digging, dig an escape route for me"

The story so far

and today`s Evening News has a piece questioning the development???

They are in a hole so keep digging!

Edinburgh Council Face Legal Action Over Caltongate

2010-04-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

Edinburgh faces legal action over Caltongate developmentEuropean commission rules council illegally sold off area on Royal Mile at the heart of city's World Heritage site

remember these?

The Guardian 16th April 2010
Edinburgh council faces legal action after the European commission ruled it illegally sold land at the centre of an international row over the protection of the city's historic buildings, the Guardian can reveal.

The Scottish capital has already been criticised by Unesco, the United Nations culture agency, after the council approved plans for a £300m hotel and offices development at Caltongate on the medieval Royal Mile, which lies at the heart of the city's World Heritage site.

Senior council officials have been told that the European commission has decided it breached a number of European laws by selling the Caltongate site to the developer Mountgrange for £5m without putting the land – a former bus depot which sits next to Waverley station – out for sale on the open market.

In a letter passed to the Guardian, an official in the internal markets directorate discloses that the commission will start infringement proceedings for breaching regulations on public procurement, as well as breaking rules on equal treatment, non-discrimination and transparency. Under European law the proceedings are formally taken against the UK government.

The action follows a complaint from an architectural writer and historian, David Black, a founder of the Old Town Trust. "The mismanagement of Edinburgh is becoming quite legendary," he said.

"Edinburgh's reputation is already being trashed by these people, they're just incompetent."

The Caltongate proposal has been bitterly opposed by residents, architectural heritage groups and politicians. They have complained about the demolition of listed buildings, the eviction of families in affected properties and the designs of planned hotel and businesses.

Unesco's World Heritage committee said in 2008 that it "deeply regrets" the council's decision to approve the project, warning that it would ruin the medieval area's unique streetscape, damaging the Old Town's "integrity". It sent inspectors to investigate the project and several other major developments in the city.

The site is now up for sale by HBOS after Mountgrange went into administration last year, owing the bank £73m. Six new developers are said to be competing to buy the site.

George Kerevan, a former Labour councillor who is standing in Edinburgh East for the Scottish National party, said the legal action should make the council and HBOS pause for thought, halt the sale and redesign the entire project.

"I was never happy with scheme: it ripped so much of the fabric of the Old Town away," he said. "This EU intervention allows us the chance to rethink the scheme in a way that involves the local community."

A council spokesman said: "The council has always paid due regard to its legal obligations but recognises the European commission's right to investigate the matter and is currently preparing a response. With the site currently in the hands of administrators we fully expect to enter into a new agreement once a preferred bidder has been announced."

What The Dickens??

2010-01-05T03:48:00.001-08:00

"You`ve got to knock a building down or two"

Well, like we often say here, you just couldn`t make it up....Manish Chande (above left with Mark Cummings his spin doctor) yes the infamous, London based speculative property developer who emptied homes and businesses in the pursuit of his wealth, aided and abbetted by other greedy people commissioned the great, great, grand daughter of Charles Dickens to paint his skewed vision of Edinburgh and the area he wanted to destroy in the Old Town with the scheme that was known as "Caltongate"

see the paintings for sale or rent here , there is no sign of the one with Manish in front of his lost empire....remember this Caltongate King Heads for Victory, and yes Mr Chande, you blatently lied in this piece

a modern day Dickens Classic in the making

Lies, greed, deceipt, hypocrisy, double standards, treating those with less with contempt.. the list is endless..corruption, selling off the family silver.......to be continued..

Its snow more for Caltongate...

2009-12-23T02:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-09T00:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T03:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T02:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T02:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-13T02:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-06T02:48:00.000-08:00

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....

2009-11-04T23:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-31T03:06:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-10-08T01:00:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-06T03:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T01:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T03:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T02:52:00.001-07:00

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..

Glasgow Council Plans to Bulldoze Meadow

2009-09-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

What is happening?....homes and places that people value are just dispensable to the likes of Trump and all too powerful councils...

North Kelvin Meadows Campaign

The North Kelvin Meadow Campaign has learnt that Glasgow City Council
has made plans to destroy the Meadow.

Remember this is the council that took two of the locals to court to evict them for looking after the space neglected by the council.
see here

sign their petition here

Kids in the meadow below

Stop The Trump Clearances

2009-09-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

This is the Newsletter from the Tripping Up Trump campaign -

There is only 10 days left until the 1^st of October which is an extremely important day because it is the day the council will decide on how they are going to deal with the issue of compulsory purchase orders (CPO). Tripping Up Trump has grown rapidly this week , more and more people are becoming unsettled about Trump’s aggressive tactics. If Trump’s request to use CPO’s is granted it will set a dangerous precedent, this is not for a hospital or a school but for the private interest of an exclusive golf course and housing development. We all need to try our very best to be in there on the Big Day and stand up for the families affected. Please mark the date in your diary and please make a special effort to be there on the 1^st of October, because if this power is granted then no-one's home is safe.

Weekly News

This week Trump publicly displayed the plans for his development but still failed to adequately address the issue of the unjust Compulsory Purchase Orders. Residents are getting more and more concerned about the issue and have called for clear dialogue on the matter. Click link above for latest news.

How you can help

October the 1^st

We are calling for your support and would ask if you could come and join us on the 1^st of October. It is vital that there is a strong support for the councillors that are brave enough to stand up to Trump. This will be a pivotal point in this campaign and if we all gather together for this one occasion then we have the chance of helping to deliver justice to the families and residents threatened.

Wherever you are please come and join us on this eventful day. Organise others to come and inform as many people as possible about the occasion. We need the thousands of Tripping Up Trump members to rally together on this one. Thank you.

We have accommodation available the night before if anyone would like it.

Contact – trippinguptrumpATgooglemail.com

“We would be extremely grateful if you could come and support us on this very important day." David Milne (Local Resident)

Petition

Please sign our petition to stop the council using Compulsory Purchase. We are approaching 6,000 signatures so thank you all for your help. We will deliver it to the council on the 1^st.

Write to the councillors

Please show your concern and support to the residents by emailing the councillors that will have to vote on the 1^st.

Spread the word

Thousands of people have joined the campaign but please keep spreading the word. The website is constantly being updated so it is always good to point people in that direction.

Upcoming Events

Tripping Up Trump Gig (Sept 25^th)

Local musicians and poets will perform their work at the Blue lamp Pub in Aberdeen on the 25th. All the work has been inspired by the controversial development. Should be a fantastic night and starts at 7.00pm.

Menie Tour (Sept 27^th)

Local residents will be giving a tour of the dunes and the properties that are under threat. It will be a unique opportunity to hear the story of the families affected and get some real insight into how Donald Trump is using aggressive tactics to try and get this way.

Please email trippinguptrumpAgooglemail.com for more info.

Thank you all again for your support and keep spreading the word because this is a pivotal campaign for human and environmental rights.

Let’s make it happen on October the 1^st!

TUT Team

www.trippinguptrump.com

"Murrayburgh" on TV last night

2009-09-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

What a shock to the people of the republic last night when Allan Murray appeared on our screens in yet another Coast spin off type programme,"Scotland Revealed".

The first part of the programme concentrates on Edinburgh, pretty basic stuff and it's 11 or so minutes in, that the architect of Murrayburgh appears to wake you up out of your primary school mindset with teacher Charles Mckean of Edinburgh World Heritage Trust watch here

Another programme we caught this week was Jonathan Meades "Off Kilter" where he visits Aberdeen.

50 mins in he ends the programme with an entertaining and to the point piece on "Trumpton" Remember you can sign the Tripping Up Trump petition

Say NO to compulsory purchase and sign their petition!

Answers from Council on Calton Hill

2009-09-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

If you want information from the City of Edinburgh Council don't bother with an FOI, just get Brian Ferguson of the Scotsman to write a misleading article, see yesterday's post.

Remember it takes around 3 months with an FOI, remember when they were asked about the council homes they cleared on Caltongate developer Manish Chande's behalf...which they never got the rent for, now thats a scandal

FOI on Tenements at what do they know

Hill to stay open - letter in today's Scotsman

The claim of your report "Public faces Calton Hill ban at night in bid to cut crime" (15 September) is misleading. While Edinburgh council is drawing up plans for Calton Hill to preserve and protect the area for the enjoyment of residents and visitors, these do not include any proposal that it should be shut at night.

We are looking at ways to deal with antisocial behaviour and vandalism, and the closure of Carriage Drive to all vehicles earlier this summer has already contributed to a significant reduction in these problems, as well as ensuring pedestrian safety.
We want to promote the hill as a safe and well-maintained public space, making it cleaner, safer and more attractive, and it is simply not true that the council intends to restrict night-time access . CLLR ROBERT ALDRIDGE Environment leader City of Edinburgh Council

Scooby Doo, Edinburgh needs you!

2009-09-15T01:19:00.002-07:00

Our Common Good of Edinburgh includes Calton Hill, and today we hear that the council are intent on closing it to the people who own it at night, due to crime.

Now will they apply this argument to all crime spots and will they impose a curfew on the entire city streets at say 10pm?

It is known across the city that the Omni centre provides more crime for the police to deal, now will they close that at 10pm?

There is an underlying reason for this story in today's Scotsman, they are up to something...Scooby Doo where are you? We've got some work for you now.

Today the republic was sent this video link....Youtube video Edinburgh Trams Fiasco

Image from Leith Links Site

Mountgrange Greed knows no bounds

2009-09-12T03:54:00.000-07:00

Full Article here in Reuters

from article -

'LONDON (Reuters) - Fund manager Mountgrange spies more money-spinning opportunities in the housing market than in commercial property, where prices are rallying fast under the glare of the world's wealthiest bargain hunters.

Nick Berry, a partner at the privately owned fund manager, said sheer weight of money chasing discounted UK offices and shops was inflating values quicker than the fundamentals alone would support, pushing the firm to consider alternatives.

"There's a stronger case for optimism in the residential sector at the moment. There is an overwhelming shortage of housing, in particular affordable housing so demand is easily identified," Berry told Reuters.

"Available commercial property stock is much less abundant and when you're thinking about where demand is coming from in that sector, it's not so obvious. Unemployment is rising and that is pushing up vacancy rates too," he said.

Berry said the appeal of the residential sector was underpinned by lower construction costs and cheaper land prices, as well as a willingness on the part of some UK banks to take action on their problematic residential assets.'

Mountgrange, which was set up by veteran property entrepreneurs Martin Myers and Manish Chande, made its last acquisition in August 2008 when it bought a portfolio of retail and office properties from PRUPIM for 140 million pounds.

Berry said Mountgrange's investors -- a mix of sovereign wealth funds, European and North American fund of funds and state pension investors -- have been supportive of a decision to remain on the sidelines and placed no pressure on them to rush back into the UK property market.

"I'd say that whilst rents continue to fall and it is unclear where new occupier demand is coming from, it is difficult to argue that funds who have adopted this approach are in danger of missing out," he said.

This is the same Mountgrange (another one of the companies now in administration) that owes £18,000 n rent to the City of Edinburgh Council for the rent on the council tenancies they had cleared to make way for a 5 star hotel and luxury housing.....and owes HBOS £70million smackeroonies see BBC piece here

You couldn't make it up. Have these people no shame?

Tripping up Trump

2009-09-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

Tripping Up Trump is a fresh energised movement standing up for the local people and environment threatened by Donald Trump’s development in Aberdeenshire.

This real life story is no longer just about whether you agree or not with the controversial golf and housing complex. This is now about the human rights of the local people threatened by Donald Trump’s aggressive use of power. Trump is pushing to use compulsory purchase to clear local people from their land, not for a school, or a hospital, but for his profit.

Worse still, Trump received outlined planning permission on the grounds that he had all the land he needed. This is why Tripping Up Trump stands strong, demanding that Donald Trump doesn’t abuse the law and locals affected by his controversial golf course.

Say NO to compulsory purchase and sign their petition!

Like the Caltongate Clearances its a case of homes not hotels, our homes are not on a monopoly board for the rich and greedy.

Photo below shows SOOT campaigners setting up their demonstration outside City of Edinburgh Council City Chambers on the Royal Mile on the morning of the 15th June 2006 before the planning committee met for the third time to consider the revised Masterplan The Forum attended and gave a deputation calling for a council and community led plan.

RMJM's Gazprom Tower in St Petersburg

2009-09-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

RMJM's Gazprom Tower in St Petersburg

Sad news from St Petersburg, read the full story here on what is a great blog for keeping up to date with people and buildings under threat from the monster they call progress.

Below you can read this skewed justification by Tony Kettle of RMJM the article appears here in Architects Journal

UNESCO should realise that special sites require a special architectural response, says Kettle

I have been pretty clear in the past about my views on UNESCO’s intervention in RMJM’s Okhta Centre project for Gazprom in St Petersburg, Russia. The plans we have drawn up are for one of the world’s tallest buildings in one of the world’s most horizontal cities, where only special buildings are allowed to break the grain.

These special buildings include 30 churches, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Admiralty and the TV tower (which is the height of the Eiffel Tower). Each is special in its own right. A city needs a hierarchy of buildings so that the ordinary and the special work with each other. If every building attempts to be special, then they will all become ordinary; so there needs to be a good reason for a building to be out of the ordinary.

The issue of energy is the central concern of our time and Gazprom, as the largest supplier of energy in eastern Europe, is one of the reasons for Russia’s wealth and rebirth, putting it into the ‘special’ category.

The Okhta Tower must symbolise rebirth for Russia and the city of St Petersburg, while demonstrating that an innovative, low-energy building is possible in the extremes of the Russian climate. UNESCO has never disputed the quality of the design, nor the fact that the tower sits some 6km from the historical centre. But it feels it cannot allow one project to break the city’s height limits, potentially opening the gates to a ‘free-for-all’ of new development in the city. In this case, there is no latitude in its thinking, no allowance made for creation of the ‘special’.

Back in my home town of Edinburgh, UNESCO has reviewed proposals that have already been approved and has expressed concern over two in particular, which have the potential to change the city. The sites fall into two categories, the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘special’.

The ‘ordinary’ is Caltongate, a scheme which builds on the urban grain of the past. It does what any good urban design should: it repairs, it removes the bad,

Macrae tenements on the Canongate that are to be demolished

replaces with the good

Malcolm Fraser's brave new world for Jeffrey St

and creates new spaces that will benefit the city.

Caltongate's mostly in shadow for the day wind tunnel

There is not much to argue about as it is an obvious solution, which will improve a sadly neglected part of the city.

Richard Murphy's Haymarket Tower

The ‘special’ is the Haymarket site, a location which marks the entrance to the historical city centre. This is indeed a site for a gateway building, one which will give a sense of arrival. The proposal is for a 17-storey slab block containing a hotel in a form which tries to be special.

But its use, size and commercial drivers do not allow the building to be other than ordinary. UNESCO has criticised its height and suggested a buffer zone be created to stop new development close to the city centre. Surely it should have been recognised that a special site requires a special response?

The fundamental issue is not about banning all development because it is new, but instead asking whether developments really celebrate place and realise the full potential of each individual site.

Tony Kettle is group design director of RMJM
comment@architectsjournal.co.uk

Mark Cummings - Invicta PR latest

2009-08-26T03:18:00.000-07:00

From The Sunday Times by Jason Allardyce August 9, 2009

Labour candidate ‘was sent sectarian messages’

Lothian and Borders police are studying offensive text messages received by Dunfermline and West Fife candidate Thomas Docherty

Police are investigating allegations that a Scottish Labour candidate was subjected to sectarian abuse by text message.

Lothian and Borders police are studying text messages received by Thomas Docherty, who will contest Dunfermline and West Fife in the general election.
The messages, which contained a lyric from the so-called Famine song, were allegedly sent from a mobile telephone number belonging to Mark Cummings, a lobbyist. His clients have included Premier Property Group, a firm owned by David Murray, the Rangers chairman.

Two weeks ago, Docherty, a Catholic, received a message repeating a line from the Famine song which has been banned at Rangers’ Ibrox ground, and which was recently ruled by Scottish law lords to be racist. The song pillories people of Irish descent whose ancestors came to Britain to escape the potato famine which began in 1845.

The message to Docherty allegedly read: “The famine is over. Why don’t you go home? FTP.” FTP is commonly used as an abbreviation for the sectarian phrase F*** The Pope.

It is alleged that when Docherty texted the sender to check whether the message was intended for him, he received the reply: “Yes, because you are one of them.”

As a Labour candidate, Docherty is campaigning against a proposed major housing development in Dunfermline which Cummings’s firm, Edinburgh-based Invicta Public Affairs, is lobbying for.

In a statement, Cummings, director of Invicta, said: “I am aware of the matter as it has been brought to my attention. I am responding properly on a voluntary basis with the relevant authorities.

“This is a private matter that relates to me in a personal capacity only. It in no way relates to any commercial relationships that I have.”

A police spokesman said: “Police are investigating after a 34-year-old male received an offensive text message of sectarian nature.”

Docherty was unavailable for comment.

Mark Cummings pictured above with former client Manish Chande of Caltongate's Mountgrange.

Here is a bit of history on this man known throughout the country for his pr for developments on the whole unwanted by communities -

In Nairn he is well known see here

He worked with PPS who were the PR Company behind Developers Mountgrange (Caltongate) also Viridor Waste at Portobello.

The company`s motto is - "Call PPS if ...you need to undertake community consultation or if you feel your scheme may run into political or community opposition." hotlinehere

They featured in The Evening Standard in July 2007 in an article titled "Bugging, Bullying, Forgery: Property PR Tricks" EveningStandard30thjuly2007

See Dispatches Programme aired on Monday 30th July 2007 Scroll down page to find link to programme (PPS part starts at 16 minutes 50 seconds to 25 minutes 24 seconds) although all of programme worth watching!) On the 6th August 2007 another story concerning Mountgrange`s PR company PPS was published in EveningStandardaug07

In Private Eye issue no. 1192 31st August 2007 are Caltongate developers Mountgrange and their PR lobbying firm PPS to read article select your print preview and enlarge to 100% see here

"Mark Cummings the Scottish Director of PPS and Mountgrange`s spokesperson for the last two years or so left the company, 2 weeks after the Private Eye story was published in August. Now it appears he is still working for Mountgrange just under his new company name “Invicata”"

"Mark Cummings, the spin doctor who left controversial lobbying firm PPS this autumn, has landed a contract with PPS’s most high profile client in Scotland. Cummings worked on the Caltongate development account for PPS, but despite his departure was spotted at a meeting of the Caltongate Liaison Group last week. His new firm, Invicta Public Affairs, has now been taken on by Caltongate’s developer Manish Chande for what Cummings describes as “PR and public affairs, all the usual stuff”. Chande’s firm Mountgrange is expected to retain PPS’s services despite giving Invicta some work on the project." SOSarticle

Bye Bye Mountgrange

2009-08-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Lots of news about the Caltongate site!!! Hardly news really, but Mountgrange have decided not to return to the Waverley valley that they helped "uglify" by being the catalyst to emptying out the council homes and Canongate Venture and worst still knocking down the bus garage to create a gap site.

Oh and we are getting a Tsar for the World Heritage Site, what we actrually need is the planners and officials to follow their own policies and guidelines and take a common sense approach.

Capital to get tsar for world heritage site
Edinburgh Evening News - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
Unesco called for reviews into two controversial schemes that had previously been approved – Haymarket and Caltongate, which includes a 17-storey hotel. ...

Ex-Caltongate owner officially rules out developing on site
Scotsman - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
By MICHAEL BLACKLEY THE former owner of Caltongate has formally dropped its interest in the site – but insisted it still wants to invest in Edinburgh. ...

Kashgar's endager Old Town

2009-08-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Was reading the Guardian yesterday ad found this interesting article about the Old Town of Kashgar in China. About to be wiped out by a £300 million development. Where have we heard that before? £300 million to destroy the heritage on an Old Town. Kashgar is an old ancient city on the Silk Road from China to the West- you would find it to the very west of China, north of Tibet. Here lives China's Uighur population, the majority who are Muslims.

The Kashgar streets were used in the film Kite Runner to depict the streets of 70s Kabul.

Whilst the article is interesting my beef with it is not about preserving the Old Town of Kashgar for the Uigur people and for its historical contribution but so tourists can go see it.

Unfortunately the people of Kashgar probably won't be able to set up a Save Our Old Town campaign as such a campaign would probably banned in China.

To view a video about Kashgar the link is here

To read the article in the Guardian the link is here

Old Town Development Trust Meeting 26th August 7.30pm

2009-08-09T01:28:00.000-07:00

Old Town Development Trust Meeting 26th August 2009 7.30pm

Invitation to the 5th Meeting on setting up an Old Town Development Trust

Wednesday 26^th August 7.30 – 9pm.

Blackfriars Community Rooms, Coinyie-House Close, Edinburgh EH1 1NL

see map

Last year SOOT carried out The Canongate Project, 6 weeks of community consultation and action research, funded by Scottish Communities. You can find the report and findings on our website http://www.eh8.org.uk/

During the project Wendy Reid of Development Trusts Association Scotland, presented two workshops about how communities can take control of their assets and be involved in community development. Wendy was invited back in April this year to explain more about setting up such a trust in the Old Town. http://www.dtascot.org.uk/

When we launched our report on the project in February this year, at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Pauline Gallacher from the Neilston Development Trust gave a presentation on the work they have been doing in Renfrewshire. http://www.neilstontrust.co.uk/index.php

At our AGM on the 20th May this year we agreed the following motion -

“Save Our Old Town (SOOT) supports the setting up of a Old Town Development Trust. SOOT will be pro-actively contacting other groups, organisations and individuals in the Old Town to start discussions. SOOT will host a meeting for mid-June to facilitate this discussion. Over the summer there can be constructive discussions about an Old Town Development Trust. If there is a feeling and commitment to set up a development trust there will be a meeting in the Autumn to set up the Trust.”

There are many buildings that are empty, under used or in disrepair, there is a dire need for housing, particularly family sized. Public events happen in the area, but often the people of the Old Town are not consulted or even considered. We are proud of the Old Town and appreciate it qualities but are also very aware that it could be improved upon, but without the need for garish new developments and demolitions and can see that it is stewardship in hand with community led incremental small developments that is sorely needed. This is where a development trust or trusts can be helpful.

“Development trusts offer a fresh approach to community regeneration. Independent and under community control, these organisations draw together the energy, commitment and creativity of local people to tackle local issues. Through enterprise and the ownership of local assets, development trusts address the economic, social, cultural and environmental needs of their communities.” - Development Trusts Association Scotland

The SOOT Gathering

2009-07-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

We've been having a summer break here in the republic, but we are back to have some fun..

SOOTGathering

Sunday 26th July

Old St Paul's Church Hall,Jeffrey Street
click here on how to find Old Saint Pauls

Live music from

Jacobs Pillow
(celtic roots/rock/jazz)
Missing Cat
(Blues/rock/psychedelic)
The Asps
(Rock/blues)
Bonnie and Clyde
(Acoustic rock)
Ross Galloway
( acoustic folk)
Plus more to be added

..and there are rumours that the Ceilidh Master

may make an appearance!

Doors at 7:30pm
£3 on the door

BRING YOUR OWN BOTTLE

food & refreshments available

Life behind the Haymarket Hotel Saga

2009-07-03T00:48:00.000-07:00

In this weeks Scotsman the people who have openly opposed the Haymarket Hotel were given an opportunity to talk about their experience.

We applaud them and know that the cost of speaking out can sometimes be unpleasant, but rewarding at the same time. Don`t give up...

What local residents think -

Wearying process that can eat up your time – and your money

THIS year, I spent my two-week summer holiday at the Holiday Inn next to Edinburgh Zoo – despite living in the capital's Dalry Colonies, near Haymarket.

I was there because, for the past two and a half years, I have been heavily involved in the Haymarket planning saga.

The Holiday Inn was hosting a public inquiry, but the residents' association very much felt like Cinderella going to the ball

Those of us who opposed the development but who couldn't afford a planning consultant or legal counsel had to spend a lot of money and time preparing for the inquiry in Edinburgh's Central Library, reading and photocopying. Electronic copies were not available to us, unfortunately.

At the Holiday Inn, we watched sandwiches (paid for on expenses) being delivered to the main parties, while we sneaked in our own (highly illegal) sandwiches to avoid the expensive hotel lunches and brought in our own drinks.

To add insult to injury, we also had to pay to print and post copies of the evidence we submitted to the inquiry (e-mail was not sufficient) and we did not have any administrators to do it for us or any company-supplied photocopiers to use.

We are now an organisation even more financially challenged than before as a result of this development, and I almost had to resort to begging at our AGM in April for residents' donations to keep us sufficiently afloat to allow us to continue to print newsletters.

If you ever get involved in one of these planning sagas yourself, then I hope you are rich and well-connected.

It would have been easy to be beaten down by what turned out to be a two-and-a-half- year-long, drawn-out process, but you do have to wonder whether that is what developers of sites such as this rely on: members of the public falling by the wayside because they assume that the system is against them and that they don't have the time (or money!) to be or stay involved.

• Maria Kelly is chairwoman of the Dalry Colonies Residents' Association.

Scotsman 29 June 09

What architect Richard Murphy thinks here

Pensioners at the heart of hotel protests

PENSIONERS Agnes and Donald Dick, who live in the Dalry Colonies near Haymarket train station in Edinburgh, hardly fit the profile of 21st-century urban campaigners.

They describe themselves as "old school" and don't own a computer or mobile phone. They prefer quiet evenings at home in the house where Mr Dick was born. Mr Dick, 76, a keen Hearts supporter, likes watching war videos such as The Longest Day while his wife enjoys romantic wartime fiction.

But their cosy upstairs home has become the beating heart of a campaign to prevent Tiger Developments building a "landmark", 17-storey hotel, part of a £200 million project on the edge of the city's World Heritage Site.

Like younger campaigners, the couple say they are not against the site being developed, but they argue that it is out of scale with the surrounding area.

The couple's biggest weapons against the developers are their memories of the Dalry Colonies and a way of life they have perpetuated and which has galvanised younger campaigners used to a faster, but more impersonal, way of life.

Mr Dick keeps campaigners invigorated with stories of his childhood. Typical tales include him helping Tynecastle Homing Club take racing pigeons in baskets to Haymarket station to be released by station masters along the route at places such as Riccarton and Penrith. "I used to love race days," he says. "We'd sit with our tins of maize on a Saturday afternoon at the dovecot just up the road, rattling the tins to get the pigeons to come down to get clocked in. There was great excitement once when a strange pigeon flew in."

His wife says: "We feel that, at our age, there's not a lot we can do about the hotel. But we're worried if the hotel goes ahead the street will get a lot busier with cars and the hotel will overlook us.

"The hotel is far too high – it's as if the rest of us don't exist. The Hearts clock which sits in the middle of Haymarket has been our landmark and we don't need anything else."

She says that despite more "new people" moving to the colonies, the community is a peaceful haven in the city, both for them and for the pensioners in the nearby Fraser Court sheltered housing complex.

"It's so quiet here it's like being in the country," she says. "When you're walking you can hear the birds chirping and you rarely hear traffic. Going to the shops takes half an hour because people want to stop and chat."

Scotsman 29 June 09

Edinburgh thanks UNESCO

2009-07-02T01:53:00.000-07:00

What a week it has been so far with everyone getting their tuppence worth in about Unesco had to say about how we here in the capital are looking after our piece of heritage for future generations of the world. Well I think if we are not to be laughed at or pitied then really we should agree that we have is worth cherishing and not to throw it under a bulldozer on the whims of a greedy speculator in what ever era we are living in, or at under the so called justification warcrys of "Progress" or "Money, money , money" "jobs, jobs, jobs"

We are all just passing through, visiting the earth and her wonders, whether human made or natural.

Thank you Unesco for having a voice for humankind, especially the little people..Edinburgh thanks you and future generations will do too.

Scotsman Piece here

Unesco deals blow to World Heritage Site development plans for Edinburgh

From the piece -"Its annual heritage summit in Seville has passed strongly-worded resolutions urging the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government to scale back plans for a 17-storey hotel at Haymarket and redraw a £300 million Old Town scheme."

Someone had painted this on the hoardingsof New St Site Nov 08 for visiting Unesco delegation to see

Read here what the pro development lobby are saying

The Canongate Macrae Tenements that were to be demolished for the project

and heres what Wilsons Weekly Wrap made of it all
So far the Scottish government has responded by saying that Unesco’s recommendations will be taken into account in the final planning inquiry decision, the developer has effectively said, bugger off, and Gordon Murray of gm + ad has exploded with rage at the very idea of any (external) body interfering with the right of (external) developers to completely knacker our cities in the name of mammon. Indeed Gordon has got himself into such a froth in the AJ’s daily bulletin as to lump Unesco, Prince Charles, the City of Bath Council into a huge conspiracy against local democratic processes.

The best bit of the tirade is when he cites Historic Scotland, the National Trust and the Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments as the agencies that provide us with the intellectual basis from which to appraise our own heritage, his point being, I think, that we don’t need Johnny Foreigner lecturing us on the value of our culture.

Haymarket Horror Hotel

Just a pity that none of the agencies he lists has ever been known to demonstrate any democratic instincts whatsoever. But then, Gordon appears to see the purpose of World Heritage Site status as an enhancer of tourism, a viewpoint the City of Edinburgh Council has certainly taken in the past, not having bothered to read the bit of the Unesco citation that conferred responsibility upon it for the future protection of the capital’s Old and New Towns. Time, lads to read the small print of the contract."

The Carbuncle Cup Award 2009 vote now...

2009-06-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

"Just think my dear...If this is what man is capable of achieving in the Seventeenth Century, just imagine what he will be capable of in the Twenty-First!"

mikewilliamscartoons

From BuildingDesignOnline -

"High profile monstrosities, value-engineered shockers, buildings so ugly they freeze the heart - crap architecture continues its march across the UK.

Launched for the first time in 2006, the Carbuncle Cup is to the Stirling Prize what the Golden Raspberries are to the Oscars. So while the Riba searched for architecture's prime cuts, they set out to uncover the offal.

Nominations for the 2009 Carbuncle Cup – for the most hideous building completed in the last 12 months.

Either add your nomination to the story at this link , or email bdonline@ubm.com telling them where the building is and why it deserves to win. Pictures are welcome."

Pics here of Edinburgh`s most popular for award so far, oh it is the latest addition to Murrayburgh. Oh isn`t it a shame that his latest known locally as AM`s "Pube" on Leith Street isn`t completed yet so he could have had a double whammy.
Though its been uncovered that his Cube was not an original idea (surprise surprise) but inspiration came from a visit to an Australian nightclub....

But as yet this question remains unanswered, why has one mediocre architect got nearly all the projects in town??

Movie making in Edinburgh

2009-06-25T00:55:00.000-07:00

Pave Paradise and put up a parking lot

The Edinburgh International Film Festival is on at the moment.

In today`s Scotsman Local Hero director Bill Forsyth

"the Scottish film-maker said yesterday he would happily write a film about the "machinations and cynicism" he saw behind the project."

" Speaking during a visit to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the director said: "Donald Trump gets off a plane and wanders off to a Scottish beach, declares how beautiful it is and wants to destroy it."

Remember we told you back in April 2008 that we had been approached about a film
What we said -

"Its an exciting time here in the Canongate. The campaign has been approached by a world famous film director who is setting their next film here in Scotland. Its caught their attention that Scotland, although it has its first SNP led government and has its eyes on independence, all is not well across the country.

All we are allowed to say at present is that the Save Our Old Town Campaign and the battle against Trump will be the main story lines. Other campaigns around the country will feature too.

It will be a 21st century Local Hero , but harder hitting with the power of big business, corruption in local and national politics and the Scottish people fighting for their rightful inheritance among the themes watch this space...."

Things are progressing .....

Unesco meet Seville

2009-06-23T01:16:00.001-07:00

The World Heritage Committee is currently meeting for its 33rd session in Seville, Spain from 22-30 June. During the session, the Committee will consider requests for the inscription of new sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List and examine the state of conservation of sites already inscribed on the List. The Committee is chaired by H. E. Mrs María Jesús San Segundo, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO.

The World Heritage Committee consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, elected by the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention.

Remember this headline from earlier this month....

Unesco insists Capital must scrap £300m Caltongate scheme

in The Scotsman from the piece -

"A £300 MILLION development in Edinburgh's historic Old Town has been thrown deeper into chaos after Unesco inspectors demanded council leaders have the whole scheme returned to the drawing board.

Councillors are set to face international condemnation at a world heritage summit in Seville next month after a damning report urged wholescale changes be made to the Caltongate scheme – even though it has received final approval from the Scottish Government."

" Leaked documents obtained by The Scotsman reveal that heritage inspectors are demanding a reprieve for two listed buildings threatened with demolition, the scrapping of a modern building which would have blocked views from Jeffrey Street, and a full review of how the development would impact on views from Calton Hill."

"The council is expected to face a major dilemma over the future of the site if Unesco's world heritage committee approves the report's recommendations, as expected. The local authority has had two other major developments called in for public inquiries within the past few months, as well as having to deal with a Unesco investigation triggered last summer."

Remember this after the Unesco delegation visit Unesco slam city on Caltongate

UNESCO yesterday criticised Edinburgh council's handling of the Caltongate development and said the demolition of two listed buildings could have been avoided, The Scotsman can reveal.

Its European heritage chief, Dr Mechtild Rössler, condemned the council for allowing the London developer Mountgrange to draw up the initial blueprint for the huge Old Town site, by Waverley Station."

"Jim Lowrie, Edinburgh city council's planning leader, admitted the local authority could be left in a "tricky position" if the council's handling of Mountgrange was strongly criticised and asked for a response."

"However, Mountgrange has launched an attack on Unesco, the world heritage body, branding it an "irrelevance" and saying it is not interested in its views on the £300 million development." (did he really say that?)

The firm said it has no intention of postponing the start of work until after next summer's World Heritage summit, in Seville, discusses Edinburgh.

A spokesman Mark Cummings of Never Beaten PR said a "dangerous precedent" would be set if a major developer had to wait until Unesco had delivered its judgment, and insisted that Mountgrange had no intention of changing its scheme, even if key criticisms were made by Unesco." Mountgrange in administration

They will be discussing Edinburgh either tomorrow or Thursday.

Save Our Old Town Guerrilla Gardener's stake a claim on land

2009-06-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

Today citizens of the republic carried out Guerilla Gardening in a bid to highlight the plight of public land, assets and facilities being left to rot.

The kids enjoyed pulling out the enormous weeds and everyone enjoyed a well deserved summer solstice tea party that could be heard down the Canongate

After a hard day's toil they ended their community gardening and clean up of the Canongate Venture by planting a Rowan tree.

For those that don't know the Rowan Tree is renowned to offer protection to a building and the people around it and specifically protection from bad people. It is said that removing or even damaging a rowan tree brings havoc and bad luck to those that remove it.

See more pics of the day here

Michael Sandel delivers the Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4

2009-06-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

This year's Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4 will be delivered by political philosopher and Harvard University professor, Michael Sandel, Listen here

Mr Sandel, whose work has addressed issues such as ethics, democracy, and the erosion of community and moral values, will deliver a series of lectures under the title "A New Citizenship" addressing the "prospect for a new politics of the common good".

The prestigious lectures, which were last year delivered by Yale University professor Jonathan Spence on China, will be broadcast on Radio 4 and the BBC World Service in June.

The Reith Lectures began in 1948, delivered by the philosopher Bertrand Russell on the subject of "Authority and the Individual". Named after the BBC's first director general, John Reith, the lectures aim to encourage understanding and debate about issues of public interest.

Sandel said he hoped his lectures would prompt public discussion about the prospect for a "new politics of the common good".

"The Reith Lectures have a storied tradition of engaging the life of the mind and the public square," Sandel said. "At a time of political change and economic turmoil, we need new thinking about the common good.

"What, in an age of globalisation, are the moral limits of markets? What should be the place of moral and spiritual values in public life? How is biotechnology transforming our relation to nature and the environment?"

A professor of government at Harvard, his undergraduate course Justice - about moral and political philosophy - will be the basis of a 12-part public television series in the US in the autumn.

This year's lectures will be delivered in London on May 18, Oxford on May 21, Newcastle on May 26 and Washington DC in early June.

Film & Discussion Fri 19th 7pm

2009-06-18T02:10:00.001-07:00

This years Old Town Festival is about`Home` with the stories of the Old Town`s unique houses and buildings, and the people who have made the Old Town their place.

SOOT have organised 4 events in the programme, all of which are FREE and all take place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre

Friday 19th June 7pm (90mins)

A screening of the film Smoke and Mirrors, a documentary, made in partnership with ‘Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer’ campaign group, documents their successful challenge to The City of Edinburgh Council’s plan to privatise all 23,000 of the city’s council homes. It considers the impact of gentrification programmes on working-class communities, and shows how a well-organised grass-roots, community-based struggle can challenge and defeat deeply unpopular policy decisions.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film maker Neil Gray.

See here for background on successful campaign

SOOT & Old Town Festival

2009-06-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

The Old Town Festival 2009 (15-28 June) is a lively two-week celebration of people and place. Storytelling, talks and tours, film, music, open days and family events at partner venues across Edinburgh’s Old Town explore the area’s rich history of homes and communities and showcase the Old Town’s wealth of cultural activity. The Festival is coordinated by the Scottish Storytelling Centre and is supported by Edinburgh World Heritage.

This years Old Town Festival is about`Home` with the stories of the Old Town`s unique houses and buildings, and the people who have made the Old Town their place.

SOOT have organised 4 events in the programme, all of which are FREE and all take place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre

Monday 15th June to Sunday 28th June 10 -6pm

Exhibition "A Test of Time" extracts from the Saltire Society`s recent "A Test of Time" travelling exhibition. This exhibition looks at the changing qualities of housing in Scotland over the past seventy years. It was based around interviews with residents of the Saltire award winning schemes throughout the past seven decades. There is material on show given by architects, planners and clients, to show a strong sense of what their designs were hoping to achieve and whether the occupants felt that they stood the 'test of time'.

Monday 15th June 6pm (60 mins)

"If Only We Had The Room" , features a series of films from the Scottish Screen archive, a snapshot of the lives of people in Edinburgh in the 1950s and If Only We Had the Room a look at the modernisation of tenement homes.

Friday 19th June 7pm (90mins)

Tuesday 23rd June 2pm (60mins)

Housing in the Old Town. Jim Johnson (former director of The Old Town Renewal Trust) gives an illustrated talk on the development of housing in the Old Town in the 20th Century.

See Full Programme here in pdf

The Council`s New Masterplan continued

2009-06-09T03:17:00.001-07:00

Adapted from Hans Christian Andersons`The Emperor`s New Clothes`

Not so long ago there lived a council who cared so much for fancy schemes, they spent all the city’s money upon them, and on junkets and on rebranding the city and the like. They gave no thought to their citizens or to the affairs of their city. They had a new idea for every hour of the day and spent most of their time in the pages of the local papers so that everyone might see their wonderful projects.

One day there came to the city a carpetbagger called Manish Chande who had set himself up as a developer. He said he knew how to build the most wonderful development in the world. The materials and the architecture were marvellously beautiful, he said; but this project could not be seen by anyone who was stupid or unfit for their office.

"We must have lots of developments made from these materials and architecture," thought the council. "When the people see the development, we shall know the clever people from the dunces. That developer must be brought to us at once."

So the developer came to the city chambers. The council offered him a land deal so that he might begin his work without delay. The developer immediately set to work. They called for the worst architects, materials and the dodgiest PR firm they could find. They then worked steadily at convincing the city of their terrible plans.

Day after day the council could hear the rattling of the PR machine. They became very curious to see the wonderful masterplan and they decided to send someone to find how the developer and architects were getting on.

But they remembered that no one who was stupid or was unfit for his office

could see how marvellous the development was.
"We will send our faithful old Leader Donald Anderson to see it," thought the council. "He is a very clever man, and no one is more worthy of his office than he."

So good old Donald went into the room where the developer and architect sat with the masterplan.
He stared and stared, and opened his eyes wide."Mercy on us!" he thought. "It’s monstrous” But he said nothing at all."Come a little closer," coaxed the architect. "Is not this a beautiful masterplan? And the buildings- are they not magnificent?" And he pointed to the concrete blocks. Poor old Donald put on his spectacles and bent over the plans, but he could see only a vision from hell!

"Mercy!" he said to himself. "Is it possible that I am unfit for my office? Certainly no one must know it. Am I a dunce? It will never do to say that I cannot see the beauty!""Well sir, what do you think of it?" asked the developer."Oh, it is charming - beautiful," said Donald, as he peered through his spectacles.

"The buildings are gorgeous and the layout is very fine. I shall tell the council that I am much pleased with your work." "We are very glad to hear you say so," said the developer and architects. And they went on talking of the masterplan. They had named it Caltongate, and described the peculiar layout. Donald listened carefully, for he wished to repeat to the Council all that was said.

Soon the developers began a consultation on the masterplan.

It was a sham but it was useful to say they had done it.

The council then sent an official Alan Henderson and the chair of the planning committee Trevor Davies to see the masterplan. But these men fared no better than their leader. They stood before the monstrous masterplan, and looked and looked and looked, but they didn’t see a beautiful development fitting for the World Heritage Site.

"Is this not magnificent masterplan?" asked the developers. And then they praised the gorgeous architecture and explained how it was a once in a generation opportunity for the city, which it certainly was not.

"Dear, dear!" thought Trevor and Alan. "Surely I am not stupid. It must be that I am unfit for the council." But they did not want to appear so and they praised the beautiful Caltongate."Ah!" said Trevor. "The design is most unusual; and the architecture is marvellous. I shall tell the Council what fine progress you are making."

Then all of the council knew that they must view the marvellous masterplan.They went to view it along with Trevor, Donald and Alan, who thinking that the others would see how monstrous it was, all began to cry out at once, "Look, everyone, do you see the beautiful design? And the buildings- aren’t they gorgeous?”"See!" the developer said. "There are the beautiful buildings! Here is the economic argument! It’s an all or nothing deal. You may act as if this will not affect the world heritage status. That is the beauty of it."

"What is this?" thought the Councillors. They could only see a monstrous development not right for the world heritage site! “Are we not fit to be councillors? Am we dunces? If that were known, we should be deposed.""Yes, yes, it is very pretty," said the councillors aloud. "We could not be better pleased!" They smiled and nodded their heads, and stared at the horrific masterplan.
Their officials too, looked and looked, but saw only what the others saw.

Yet they all cried, "It is marvellous!" And the planners recommended that the council planning committee approve the Caltongate Masterplan.

Soon everyone in the city was talking about Caltongate.

Mountgrange placed ornamental cows around the city with their name on them so everyone could see what wonderful developers they were.

So then the people in the city were allowed to gaze at the masterplan for they too wanted to see the magical Caltongate"How handsome the Councils Caltongate is!" they all cried. "What a perfect fit for the World Heritage Site! What marvellous architecture"

"But it is horrible!" cried a resident in the Old Town."The resident tells the truth," said her neighbours quietly.And the people began to whisper to one another what the resident had said. "It is horrible! A resident says it is horrible!" Soon all the people and the city’s heritage bodies were saying aloud, "But it is horrible!"

And the Council, hearing what they said, shivered, for they knew that their words were true. But it would never do to stop the process; and so they held themselves stiffer than ever.

And behind them, their officials held their heads higher than ever, and took greater pains to justify the Masterplan.

As the day of the committee came nearer, the PR team worked with might and main.

They were never out of the local press. They filled the pages with empty statements and the airwaves with spin.

The Planning Committee’s 15 councillors looked again the masterplan,

and then they held their hands high in the air and approved it. They did not dare let it be known that they saw a vision from hell.

The developers then pretended to listen again, to the local community, while they drew up the detailed plans. They sent out more promotion all over the city. They wined and dined whoever they had to and Alistair Darling gave money towards their underground heating although this will not serve the peoples housing.

"How well the city will do with this new development." says the Chamber of Commerce? "What a becoming style! What beautiful economic arguments! They are indeed fit for the world heritage site!" The Chamber gave the developer Manish Chande a key position, and the architect was told he could redesign the entire city.

In the following year after the masterplan was approved, Donald and Trevor were not re-elected. But alas Trevor carries on his love for Caltongate in the local press from time to time and Donald now works for the developers’ infamous PR firm PPS. Alan Henderson is still in office and has just recommended that the new planning committee approve the individual plans on the 6th of February.

On the 6th February, the new planning committee continued with the pretence, only two of the councillors joined in the cries of the people Cllrs Burgess and Keir

When the new council leader Jenny Dawe was elected in May 2007 she branded designs for the landmark building in the Caltongate development "grotesque and hideous", raising further questions about the future of the £300 million project.Articlehere

But now she too is seeing the Council`s New Masterplan -Council leader Jenny Dawe said: "The Caltongate development will breathe new life into a neglected part of the Old Town.".Article

Press Coverage
Scotsman Article OpinionPieceScotsman
PPSGROUP OTHERS

Now this week despite even Unesco saying the scheme should be scrapped the council are still singing its praises

from The Scotsman 6th June 09 -

"Jim Lowrie, the city council's planning convener, said:

"A decision on the Caltongate scheme has been considered and agreed by the planning committee. We are of course aware of the comments made by Unesco in their draft report and we await the outcome of the World Heritage Committee later this month."

and today there is a laughable piece in the vain of "jobs can be used to justify any nonsense" in the Evening News that they wrote based on this piece of nonsense

Caltongate must be scrapped insist UNESCO

2009-06-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

"Unesco insists Capital must scrap £300m Caltongate scheme"

The elephant in the room is of course Caltongate, no one utters the word in council corridors any more, we hear, they are hoping it will go away, but in sunny Spain this year it is to come back and , well, we all know what elephants do...Why did Caltongate not get a public inquiry?

In the republic we can`t help thinking that the Council have obviously not passed any exams in how to defend their decisions to approve bad developments, perhaps they should pay a visit to the Argument Clinic

With today`s headline -

Unesco insists Capital must scrap £300m Caltongate scheme

in The Scotsman they must be scratching their heads on what to say next

from todays piece -

"A £300 MILLION development in Edinburgh's historic Old Town has been thrown deeper into chaos after Unesco inspectors demanded council leaders have the whole scheme returned to the drawing board.

This week plans to demolish the art deco Odeon Cinema approved by the council were called in by the Scottish Government, see here

and of course there is the public inquiry that ended yesterday on plans approved by council for the Haymarket Horror Hotel

Then there is the matter of the council not getting the money they are owed from developers...

Meggetland - "A NEW community hall is set to be mothballed after council officials failed to collect £200,000 to pay for it from a now defunct housebuilder". article here

Then there`s the rent from the council homes they emptied on behalf of Caltongate Developer`s Mountgrange

a council blinded by the pie in the sky promises from the big boys and the bling of it all...they think they are big business but in reality they have not a clue, how would they fair on the Apprentice we wonder...thing is though its a capital city and people`s lives they are playing with and its for real.

London Calling

2009-06-03T04:55:00.000-07:00

With all eyes on Westminster, this is the blog to keep on top of things Order-Order Blogspot

Here in the republic it has got us thinking the questions we need answers to, will appear soon as it seems to be the order of the day...

In todays piece in The Scotsman on Herb Stovel giving his expert opinion in the Haymarket Inquiry, many in the comments on the article are asking these very questions

Remember these

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

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 Party

which 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

5. 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 development
Mountgrange`s Manish Chande is head of their property portfolio group see page 4 of their magazine
Chambers Magazine and in Evening News Today Ron Hewitt of Chambers Roots For Caltongate

Edinburgh Castle Outdated

2009-05-29T04:09:00.001-07:00

In the republic last year, we told you of the council`s plan to re-brand Edinburgh and rename her Murrayburgh. after the architect they have charged with reshaping it

Well as things progress speedily, this week at the Haymarket Public Inquiry, it was suggested that well, castles are a bit old fashioned and de rigeuer of the day for city skylines are hotels and other symbols that scream Fred Goodwin, Mountgrange Capital basically " the age of greed"

The Haymarket Hotel artiste Murphy makes no apologies for changing the skyline.

But if his hotel is anything like his flats for us peasants in the Old Town, it will not be changing the skyline for that long.....now today is a day for getting out of town and building some castles on the beach ....perhaps a young Murphy was forever getting his sandcastles knocked down and this is his revenge.....big, bad hotels......The 17 Storey Haymarket Horror Hotel

Old Town is becoming a ghost town

2009-05-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, the Evening News has been counting the empty shops and cafes in the Old Town and according to them there are 29 empty ones, you can read about it here

The problem of course is the economic times but also the high rents and rates that are charged in the Old Town but also the constant upheaval of roads, streets and pavements. The high rents and rates and the indigenious population being displaced by the holiday makers who take up reisence at the weekend and during the summer ensured the closure of the shops communities need. Many years ago there was once a shop where you could buy coldmeat and a bag of coal - of course times change and perhaps chopped pork and coal are not the call of the day but it would be nice to buy some fresh fish or a packet of tea bags.

Local traders are telling the Republic that they are really struggling, they enjoy the buzz of the Old Town but cannot afford the high rents and rates, the council being one of the landlords that are squeezing the pips until they squeek.

It's funny though because the council appeared to believe that the Canongate was a great place for luxury retail in the now beleagered and washed out Caltongate. The citizens of the Canongate more than once pointed out that the retail need to be in Princes Street not being taken away from it.

But the other issue is how do we attract shops back to the Old Town? There are few shops that sell food - we have lost our co-op, fishmonger, butcher, baker, greengrocer and even our sweetie shop and that is in the Canongate alone.

Let's see what happens - will more businesses close down, will the Old Town become a ghost town?

Mountgrange wants a Divorce!

2009-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Breakdown of Caltongate marriage

By Steven Vass Sunday Herald 24th May 2009

THE DEVELOPER behind the collapsed £300 million Caltongate project in Edinburgh has indicated for the first time that it will not attempt to revive the project.

Manish Chande, co-owner of Mountgrange Capital, which was forced into administration by its banker Lloyds in March, told the Sunday Herald he was "close to divorce" from the project, expressing impatience with the planning delays and heritage objections that have dogged the four-year project.

Chande's decision to draw a line under Mountgrange's involvement in Caltongate comes as administrator Deloitte said it had held talks with other potential developers and that a deal could be "months if not weeks" away. This runs contrary to reports that Lloyds was leaning on the administrator to mothball the site until the commercial property market picked up in value.

Chande said of the development, which was to include a five-star hotel, more than 200 homes, offices, cafes, bars and a public square: "We have had our separation, and we are getting close to our divorce.

"We may not be the best buyer. After four years of work, we saw the issues that arose and we are perhaps slightly affected by it."

Chande's comments contradict speculation at the time of the Mountgrange Capital administration announcement that he and business partner Martin Myers would push to buy back the development from Deloitte at the earliest opportunity.

Chande responded that it was unlikely he and Myers would agree with the administrator's valuation of the site. Mountgrange Capital paid £20m for Caltongate in 2004, but it is not thought to be worth anything like that now.

John Reid, Deloitte's administrator for Caltongate, said he had not heard from Chande or Myers but added: "We have been talking to a number of other potential developers and expect to conclude within months if not weeks. It is our intention to move forward as quickly as we can."

Clearly The Evening News are not keeping up with divorce proceedings, with their front page headlines "Caltongate set to be revived by failed firm's ex-bosses"

The Great Calton & Gate Swindle part 2

2009-05-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

Publicity shot for the forthcoming movie The Great Calton & Gate Swindle part 2

From an article in today`s Property Week

"Manish Chande and Martin Myers have re-emerged from the administration of Mountgrange Capital with £850m to spend on ‘the next big thing’

Martin Myers and Manish Chande reached the nadir of their careers in March with the administration of their company, Mountgrange Capital."

Myers says: ‘In the summer of 2006, we thought we would launch a fund and wind down the old Mountgrange – Mountgrange Capital – to launch the fund.

‘We saw autumn 2006 as the peak of the market and, although we did not anticipate the fall that we have seen, we saw that the market had reached its peak.’

Chande adds: ‘In autumn 2006 we saw the rate of growth beginning to slow.’"

Meanwhile here in the republic we are asking did the council officials and councillors know that they had no intention of continuing with the company that they had entered into a questionable land deal with? A Land deal which is currently being investigated by the EU?

If they did how was it that this information was not made known to the public?

Now we know all about what has been revealed in Westminster, surely now it is time to cast the net wider and increase transparency and accountability over decision making at local level.

Would the CEC consider selling off 'council land' at the bottom of the market to the same people just because they have changed their name and got money from different people?

A company which couldn't even cough up £18,ooo for council homes they had the council empty on their last round of pie in the sky promises?

also from article in Property week -

"So it seems remarkable that just weeks later a phoenix is rising from the ashes in the form of an £850m opportunity fund.

Chande and Myers, who have worked together since 1983, founding, running and selling Imry before the 1990 crash, and setting up Trillium, which they sold for £330m to Land Securities in 2000, suffered a bitter blow earlier this spring.

Their lender, Bank of Scotland Corporate, refused to lend a string of Mountgrange companies – including those developing the £300m Caltongate scheme in Edinburgh and the 160 acre Phoenix Park in Linwood, Paisley – any more money and, as the values of schemes continued to fall, they were forced into administration.

Among the assets sold by administrator Deloitte are horses from a stud farm that was owned by one of the Mountgrange companies, to raise money for creditors.

But it has now decided to hold on to the projects and is attempting to complete them to sell at a more profitable time.

Terry? Terry who?

2009-05-21T03:06:00.001-07:00

Above is our favourite Terry here in the republic and a song from him with a great video..
that could be played to accompany the other Terry`s departing speech today in Edinburgh where he seemingly was the citys design champion for the past 5 years?

What the other Terry said at the beginning of his post here in Edinburgh in 2004 in The Telegraph

"How can a city be densely built without repeating the mistakes of post-war planning? How can the city be made socially inclusive?
How can it be made friendly to both walkers and car-users?
And how can Edinburgh's new waterfront development be integrated with the city as a whole?"

Now heres what he`s saying 5 years later in The Times from yesterday

“a lack of vision is ruining the city” and that its £512 million tram project highlights the failures of its moribund planning system."

On the eve of a conference of politicians, architects and planning professionals, Sir Terry said that Edinburgh's wonderful legacy was being undermined by a dangerous complacency among civic leaders whose lack of “bigger thinking” is allowing even its most famous street, Princes Street, to sink into “a shambles”.

and today as he leaves the city The Scotsman

"While reluctant to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the £300 million Caltongate project, which intended building shops, offices and a hotel in the Canongate in the Royal Mile, Sir Terry has outlined his vision for many other parts of the city.

These include plans for redeveloping a stretch just less than seven miles long in the Leith docks and Newhaven area, which he dubs "Waterfront City" and which he says would be on a par with the creation of the New Town."

SOOT meeting tonight 7pm

2009-05-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

SOOT meeting and AGM is taking place tonight the 20th May 2009 at 7pm in Old Saint Pauls Church Hall, Jeffrey St. Finding Old Saint Pauls

In attendance tonight will be Andy Wightman who is a freelance writer, researcher and the author of Who Owns Scotland, one of his specialist areas is Scotland`s Common Good.

Since it was confirmed that developer`s Mountgrange are in administration there have been many letters and artilces in the press suggesting what can be done with the now undeveloped site that was formerly the New Street Bus Depot. Prior to demolition in 2006, it was home to a bustling Sunday Market/ Car Boot Sale, artists studios (David Hutchison was one) , the Bongo Club (live music,clubs,yoga classes & arts) and a car park.

SOOT needs a much larger management committee to continue working and to take ideas forward and support those people involved. So do come along tonight and get involved.

SOOT will be needing people for the management committee and to take on individual roles such as fund raising, administration, publicity , membership secretary and other volunteers. Have you skills or perhaps you want to learn new ones?

If you can`t attend, do send an email to canongatecommunityforumATyahoo.co.uk to say how you want to be more involved in SOOT.

After the official AGM business there will be an opportunity for discussion about the future and the proposed Old Town Development Trust as well as an opportunity to discuss Common Good issues with Andy Wightman.

See www.eh8.org.uk for more information and media coverage

Mountgrange owes £18,000 in Rent

2009-05-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

Mountgrange`s Manish Chande and his spin doctor Mark Cummings legging it from Edinburgh, leaving behind them debts including £18,000 in council house rent arrears....

Remember how through an FOI we in the republic found out that Mountgrange were renting the council houses see here

Caltongate failure set to free up condemned flats for rent

Full Piece here 16 May 2009

"UNDER-THREAT council houses on the Canongate are set to be reused after the collapse of the Caltongate scheme.

Developer Mountgrange Capital was meant to be meeting the cost of the rent while the flats laid empty but council chiefs today admitted they failed to collect a single penny before Mountgrange went into administration in March.

The outstanding rent is thought to be around £18,000, with officials admitting they are not sure how they will recover that money.

Council chiefs said they intend to assess the flats to see what it would take to bring the properties up to a condition fit for rent.

The nine council flats were due to be bulldozed or partially demolished as part of the Caltongate project, which was sunk when Mountgrange's bankers pulled the plug.

A further nine private flats at 227-229 Canongate have been bought up by Mountgrange over the last two years and are now in the hands of the administrator Deloitte.

Campaigners today welcomed the chance of getting people back into the empty properties, particular in light of the city's affordable housing crisis.The Macrae Tenements on the Canongate, which are lying empty and have lost the city thousands in rent

Julie Logan, spokeswoman for the Save Our Old Town campaign group, said: "We are really pleased that the council has finally seen the sense of the recommendation that we made in our Canongate project report.

"There should not be a lot to do to these flats because a lot of them have had new doors and glazing, and also modernised inside in recent years.

"It will be good to get people into these homes, even on a temporary basis, and then start to have a proper look at what can be done with the area longer-term."

City leaders are trying to find firms to take on the gap site but it is thought it could be years before work gets underway.

A council spokeswoman said, "The council is considering options for bringing the nine flats back into temporary use until the future of the Caltongate development is known.

"A number of considerations need to be taken into account including the cost of bringing these properties up to rentable condition, and the timescale in which the new development is due to begin. If this proves to be feasible and cost effective, then bringing these properties back into use is a real possibility."

She added: "One of the terms Mountgrange had provisionally agreed to was they would cover the rent loss associated with the empty Council properties.

"However, as discussions are ongoing with the administrators, we are not in a position to say how this will money will be recovered.""

What now for New Street?

2009-05-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

An inner city allotment idea, perhaps a possible part of the temporary solution for New Street see more here

The following piece by Ian Fraser in The Sunday Times 10 May 09 in which he is calling on the council to listen to the community and

"Let imagination grow

Edinburgh city council ought to become more imaginative. Owing to new-found caution at Lloyds Banking Group, there is now a massive hole-in-the-ground in the heart of the old town where Mountgrange had been hoping to erect its hugely unpopular Caltongate development.

According to property experts this is likely to remain a vacant site for at least the next three to four years.

So perhaps councillors should listen to local residents who have suggested that the cleared former bus garage should be turned into an adventure playground and allotments for Edinburgh’s younger generation — at least until administrator Deloitte manages to sell on the site. After all, play is a human right too."

Article here 4th May 09 in Eve News on suggestions for city gap site

Letter here to Evening News 7th May suggesting a playground for site

Below an inner city community playground, ideas from London Here

But of course the ideas for the site are endless, and in the meantime lets get pressure on the council to get tenants back into the cleared flats, has Manish Chande stopped paying the rent?

and lets get people back into the Canongate Venture and the Former veg market back into use. Lets get them maintaining our public spaces and buildings, not allow them to fall into disrepair because Mountgrange used to playing Bingo promised them the jackpot..

Re-Bridge The Gap Campaign

2009-05-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

A new campaign to bring back the connection above from the Old Town to the New Town over Waverley Station was launched this week by a Canongate resident, never stop do we?? Its in the stonework we think.

In the campaign`s words - "Re-Bridge the Gap is a campaign group formed to secure the re-instatement of the important and historic link between the Old Town and Leith Walk. This is a historic link that existed for hundreds of years before British Rail closed it in the mid-1950s. For most of its history, it was the primary route from Edinburgh to Leith in the form of a street outside Edinburgh's eastern boundary called Leith Wynd. Due to the City Improvement Act of 1867, Leith Wynd was replaced with Cranston Street, which at the time ran all the way from the top of the Canongate to Calton Road. During the redevelopment of Waverley Station in the 1890s, objections to closing the northern section were so strong that Parliament required a pedestrian route be created and maintained by the railway company, to ensure the link between the Old Town and Calton Road was not lost. To satisfy this legal requirement, a footbridge was built from Jeffrey Street, across the roof of Waverley Station, to Calton Road."

See more and take action before the 15th of May at the campaign`s website here

The Canongate is going to be covered in SOOT once again here

Flowers for the gap sites

2009-05-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh Council wants to grass and plant flowers in the gap sites of Edinburgh hopefully in their attempt to win Britain in Bloom. Read more here. This is not a bad idea but it should not be the only idea for gap sites. The Caltongate site has a £100,000 bond for a land art scheme if work did not go ahead within 3 months of planning permission - more than a year later and Mountgrange in administration where is the land art scheme, where is the £100,000??? The Republic says "show us the money" - the contract states that the money was to be held in a joint bank account with the council and Mountgrange. The community should have a say how this bond should be managed and spent.

Contact your local councillor and ask about the bond and when will it be released. Citizens in the Republic think much more is needed than grass and some cornflowers, if it is to be a public space even temporarily then it needs to be thought about, whatever happens, a continued gap site would be an eyesore and a testimony to mismanagement .

Bank won`t sell New Street Site ?

2009-04-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

From todays Evening News 29 April 2009

THE massive Caltongate site is set to mothballed for a year or more after the Bank of Scotland ordered administrators not to sell the site on the cheap.

The Edinburgh-based bank is owed £73.8 million by Mountgrange Capital and is concerned that, in the current market, the site would not sell for enough to get it the money back.

Remember when the republic broke the news of Mountgrange having no cash back in September last year, of course no one believed them as they were not a PR spin doctor like Mark Cumming of Never Beaten PR or Donald whaur`s yer troosers? Anderson of the infamous pr outfit PPS Group

Help keep 11 properties for the nation.

2009-04-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

One of the at risk properties - Haddo House, originally designed by William Adam in 1732

Our blog here in the republic is proving a popular friend for those in need. Today`s cry for help is from concerned members of the National Trust for Scotland.

In Trust for Scotland has been formed to organise National Trust for Scotland members’ opposition to the lack of consultation about proposed closures of eleven properties held “in trust for the nation”.

The Board and Council of the NTS have shown blatant disrespect to donors, volunteer supporters and employees by failing to consult them about solutions to the deep and sudden financial crisis
: To avoid a ‘fait accompli’ at September’s AGM an Extraordinary General Meeting should be called before the Board and Council causes any more harm to the NTS.
: They need 2,000 signatures to call an EGM

Their website is www.intrustforscotland.org.uk and they are on facebook

Holiday Home Hell

2009-04-26T00:53:00.000-07:00

One of the images from the Edinburgh International Festival brochure this year...showing drunks urinating on Greyfriars Bobby

Help improve the lives of those living in the city centre, by calling on the Scottish Government to make landlords of "Holiday Lets" comply with legislation, none at present. Its a start in the right direction for now.

From an article last week Evening News

"The Scottish Government has changed its mind on a crackdown on "party flats" after pleas from residents plagued by revellers who come to the Capital for stag and hen weekends.Neighbours demanded action, claiming their lives have been made a misery by groups of up to 25 people staying in one flat and causing noise, disturbance and antisocial behaviour."

SIGN PETITION HERE

from another piece from 3o March 09 "another neighbour in Grove Street, who asked not to be named, said one of the flats in the street was let out to stag and hen parties for about £600 a night. He said: "For the last three years, every Friday and Saturday it is stuffed with 14 or 16 people who urinate in the stairwell and cause a disturbance. They have been sold the deal as a stag or hen party and they are out to have fun."

"And because it's not an official HMO or a B&B, it falls between two stools and the landlord is not subject to any legislation. He is essentially above the law.

Many of our homes in the republic have been turned into holiday flats...making our lives as families with small children and our elderly neighbours lives (some housebound) hell, we are expected to be unpaid hostel staff.........while the owners sit back and rake in the cash on flats that were once council owned and rented out at £300 a month are now more than that a night!

The Grassmarket is looking to change it`s image

and its happening in Glasgow too

and Cardiff has had enough as well

Demolition Derby in The Pans

2009-04-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

A photo of the Fowler`s building mid demolition yesterday.....

We have received this sad news from our friends in the Pans......there was no prior warning, this has made the republic very anxious for the buildings at risk here in the Old Town

See here for more on the Prestonpan`s Story

Lidls to build cheap homes at the expense of Prestonpan`s heritage....

Council`s Old Town Plan Revealed

2009-04-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

Cartoon from Gibbleguts

At a secret committee meeting of the City of Edinburgh Council, this news has been leaked to the Republic....

As we suspected the council`s overall city centre development strategy is to rid the Old Town of permanent residents.

At the meeting it was discussed that the measures already in place are working a treat.

"The HMO`s are going faster than hot cakes", said one councillor. They added "That puts paid to pesky permanent residents breeding any more Edinburgh Old Town residents and there are never voices of dissent from a flat full of spanish student/casual workers on council policy." "Family housing my a**e , who do they think cities are for??" sneered another councillor.

"Us business people thats who" piped up another

"Then when we rename it "Murrayburgh" no one will blink an eyelid" laughed one who is a friend of local architects it is rumoured.

"That policy of destroying all trees, pockets of greenspace is astoundingly quick in driving out not only the wildlife but the most hardy of long term residents" laughed another councillor closely connected to entertainment companies across the city.

They added "The sanitisation of the Grassmarket has worked a treat, so public space will be as out of fashion as a residents association in the not too distant future" sniggered another into their latte.

"The lax response to Hen and Stag parties ruining residents lives is going well", reported another councillor, known for their pro economic development line on the planning committee. "Passing every hotel application is progressing well too", laughed another councillor who has close hotel industry links. "Gosh it won`t be long" sneered a councillor known for their disdain of locals, "before residents are a thing of the past", then we can pay students to dress up as residents through the ages" suggested another who has close links with the tourist industry "

"Spending money on statues are getting their goats at the moment but with one going up soon of the ordinary woman in response to the many complaints about only having the common man statue outside the councils HQ will surely will shut them up" said the committee`s chair.
to be continued.......

Capital News

2009-04-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Someone bought the following to the republic`s attention, which is an excellent summary on recent events in the capital. It is from Wilson`s Weekly Wrap which appears in Architecture Scotland.

"Thinking out of the box, or just out of the box?
Like buses, you can go a long time without seeing anything in the Scotsman that is even vaguely about architecture and then – lo – two features in one week. Well, not so much features as opinion pieces by a duo of well-known architects stationed on separate sides of the Caltongate divide. The first, by Malcolm Fraser, sought to articulate the protagonists’ position and whilst it made a bold case for seeing the proposed architecture as a continuation of Edinburgh’s strong urban traditions, it lapsed early on into a justification of the kind of statistics so well-loved by politician and, by default, developers – the supposed number of jobs created in construction and the predictions of total jobs established as a result of the finished development itself.

The trouble with this argument is that developers are not actually in the business of creating jobs but, more fundamentally, in the business of making themselves piles of dosh. If the development equation most profitable to them also responds to outdated political imperatives, all well and good, but this usually equates to those aspects of their projects they can pre-let to others who actually are in the business of front-line employment. No pre-lets, no development finance: precisely the problem that brought down Mountgrange, the developer for Caltongate – put simply, nobody else saw commercial benefit in their project just at the time when the company most needed them to.

The question is whether or not the scheme that proved so seductive to the City of Edinburgh Council and the Chamber of Commerce will, when the economy begins to recover, prove to be quite as enticing. In any case – and Malcolm surely understands this all too well – the number of jobs created is never contingent upon the quality of the architecture proposed and any project for this site could just as easily max out the figures to suit its case for political approval. Whether or not the scheme is – as Malcolm asserts – hugely better than previous proposals for the site will no doubt be the subject of ongoing debate given that these predecessors were simply (as it was for Caltongate before the crunch) the most financially beneficial for the developers of the day. None were perfect, none were based on any assessment of the actual civic needs of Edinburgh.

So to James Simpson, an architect who, by virtue of the long tenancy his practice previously had in an office just off the Canongate, knows the Old Town just as intimately as Malcolm. As a noted conservationist, James makes the case for a more Geddes-ian approach, albeit less specific since he is not fronting an alternative project. James is spot-on in one respect though – history does show that times of high economic pressure are often bad for historic cities, although whether or not the principles espoused by Patrick Geddes could provide an alternative funding scenario for the Caltongate site is not a question likely to be tested by the City of Edinburgh Council.

The prime movers of the anti-Caltongate cause, however, has been SOOT (Save Our Old Town), a loose agglomeration of local residents and others that, in the wake of Mountgrange’s demise, has boldly initiated the formation of a ‘Canongate Community Development Trust’ to consider and promote an alternative vision for the site. Nobody should doubt the intentions or the energies of this group – they have been far sharper in generating press and public support than the aforementioned Mountgrange, despite the latter’s considerable investment in marketing and public relations. But the real question for this large city centre site is one the Council long ago abrogated responsibility for: the need for a proper civic vision that transcends the development imperatives of specific interest groups whichever sector they happen to come from.

Realpolitik in Charlotte Square
Given the way the tectonic plates of local politics have been shifting of late, it was probably bound to happen, so the only surprise is that it’s taken so long for Edinburgh’s World Heritage Trust (EWHT) to be banned by its two principal funders from commenting on major developments in the city. Not wishing to be seen to be wielding the big stick themselves, the city’s Council and Historic Scotland appointed consultants who – shock, horror - came to the conclusion that the Trust was “too adversarial” and was responsible for “considerable tension” with the two partner bodies that until now have provided it with £1m plus of public money per year.

The City of Edinburgh Council has, as the Wrap has mentioned before, always found itself confused by the World Heritage Site status awarded to its Old and New Town areas as a result of an application to Unesco by Historic Scotland in 1995 and consequently has tried to accommodate it in the only terms it understands - tourism and commercial benefit. Giving the EWHT carte blanche to veto duff planning applications certainly wasn’t part of that agenda, and there can be little doubt that the Trust’s acerbic comments on the Council-approved Caltongate project was the straw that finally gave the municipal camel the hump.

Not that it admits as much – no, Jim Lowrie, the current chair of planning, insists the Council is simply trying to “streamline” the planning process in the capital. What streamlining means in this instance is a requirement that the Trust direct its energies towards the promotion of the World Heritage site to tourists, to work with schoolchildren and to develop projects to restore historic buildings and monuments. The latter has a particular piquancy, given that the Council and Historic Scotland have long since ceased to allocate the levels of funding to the Trust that facilitated useful grant aid to building owners. And just to confirm it’s got the message, an EWHT source is reported as saying that “we’ve been told to keep our heads down or face substantial funding cuts…it was very much a case of take it or leave it.”

In days gone by (and surely that’s the world most loved by the EWHT board?), political pressure of this sort would not be tolerated and from the chair down, mass resignation would be the order of the day rather than be seen as the patsies who succumbed to totalitarian stricture. Not so, it seems: as chair of a now revisionist EWHT, Charles McKean has simply commented to the effect that ”the recommendations made reflect a change of emphasis towards more targeted grant-giving (sic), project work in the public realm and interpretation of the World Heritage site. That may well be the case, Charles, but it does make the rest of us wonder what the last 14 years of street-by-street, building-by-building combat by the Trust have really all been about. "

Red Bull gives you Caltongate

2009-04-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

Almost ten years ago what was "Caltongate King" Manish Chande up to?
Drinking energy drinks and running past pop star`s houses. Nowadays he is throwing champagne receptions and renting 8 council houses from the City of Edinburgh Council, denying people in the capital a home.

"A £300m deal with Land Securities will make property chief Manish Chande a major construction client, but contractors aren't his favourite people.

It's just after lunch and Manish Chande breezes into the meeting room of his Barbican offices with a can of Red Bull in his hand. He's always drinking the stuff – not so much to quench thirst, he says, but to pump more caffeine into his system. It's virtually the secret of his success. "It keeps you going, especially if it's 11 o'clock at night and you've got to work late," he says."

"Lives In Hampstead – I run past Noel Gallagher's house, Supernova Heights, in Belsize Park most mornings.""

Full article here

Caltongate King rents 8 council flats in Canongate

Caltongate King piece

40,000 bids for council tenancies

Inspiration for Caltongate?

2009-04-03T06:00:00.001-07:00

Allan "Caltongate or Edinburgh Must Die" Murray trained under Moshe Safdie, who is responsible for the above in Kansas which is on hold

A Murray Piece here and Why oh why is he everywhere? asks this piece

Edinburgh to be renamed Murrayburgh

SOOT meeting Tonight 7pm

2009-03-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

"and you can bet your life that the architect lives in a nice little villa in the country"

Architect defends Canongate

Published Date: 01 April 2009The Scotsman By BRIAN FERGUSON

A LEADING architect whose firm was involved in the stricken £300 million Caltongate development in Edinburgh's Old Town has launched an outspoken attack on critics of the scheme.

Malcolm Fraser has criticised campaigners for celebrating the demise of developer Mountgrange Capital last week and pledged to confront them at a public meeting tonight.

Mr Fraser was behind one of the most controversial elements of Caltongate – a six-storey landmark blocking one of the best-known views of Calton Hill, from Jeffrey Street. He writes in today's Scotsman : "In a recession, with thousands losing their jobs and homes, the creation of up to 2,000 jobs and around 200 new homes is an odd sort of destruction, and its postponement an odd sort of victory."

He wrote as the council defended its handling of the development, after claims that planning delays caused its collapse last week when Mountgrange went into administration. The scheme was unveiled four years ago. Final plans were lodged in October 2007 and approved by February 2008.

Jim Lowrie, the capital's planning leader, yesterday insisted the city was right to have a "stringent" planning process, adding: "We are responsible for ensuring that the city's character is preserved for future generations."

A special April "NO FOOLS " SOOT meeting is tonight the 1st April 2009 at 7pm in Old Saint Pauls Church Hall, Jeffrey St. Finding Old Saint Pauls

You can read what Malcom Fraser is saying in a piece in todays Scotsman, whcih as from 11.20am you can now read online due to overwhelming demand

Below is Frasers contribution to the project - larger here

the building which would block the view would then only be seen by the people inside the building, who would be no other than architects!!

A poem by Shelley -

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away

Dig for Victory

2009-03-31T01:48:00.000-07:00

"To stop food shortages in the Second World War the government encouraged British people to grow their own food and to turn all spare land into allotments. Gardens, flowerbeds and public parks: any available space was used.

"The Meadows, the Edinburgh Meadows was all converted into allotments… you had an area and it was allocated to you and you could grow certain vegetables on it..."
Click on a link to hear the extract: Broadband version --- Dialup version

Friends of The Meadows Association 21st Century

"There were 520 plots on the Meadows, but there were many other areas around Edinburgh that were used as emergency allotments during the war. These included Balgreen Park, Bruntsfield Links, Victoria Park, Joppa Quarry, Meadowbank, Craiglockart, Craigentinny Golf Course, Inverleith Park and many more. "
see more at Edinburgh Living Memory

The Good Life could be coming to the Canongate

people are continuing to write to the Republic and the press with ideas of what could happen with the empty site....come along to the SOOT "NO FOOLS" public meeting tomorrow and share yours on the 1st April 2009 at 7pm in Old Saint Pauls Church Hall, Jeffrey St. Finding Old Saint Pauls

Blank canvas

Scotsman Letters 31st March 09

WHAT to do with the Caltongate site? How about some grass seed? We don't need any more hotels, we don't need any more empty office space and we definitely don't need another shopping mall.

George Kerevan (Opinion, 26 March) wrote about Spanish architecture. In every major Spanish city, there are bustling sports centres where kids of all ages play in little local leagues into the night and under floodlights. People from the neighbourhood come along and watch, making for a real social, almost family occasion.

Our town council has talked many times about Edinburgh becoming a Milan or a Barcelona in the north, so do what these cities do – provide civic space. Why not be creative with Caltongate? Landscape it. Put in half-a-dozen five-a-side pitches, tennis courts, swings. It could be a Festival venue, a focal point for the Old Town. We could even put up with another coffee shop. Why have a big black hole in our city when we could have a dear green place?BARRY GARDNER Ferry Road Edinburgh

If only ..............

2009-03-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Unlike a city in China desperate to achieve World Heritage Status which is chopping the tops off skyscrapers, we have been spared this drastic action to preserve our status with the demise of Calotongate. The UNESCO report said to be damning of the proposed project and its handling by the City of Edinburgh Council will be published in a couple of months time.

Read this article written in August 2005 perhaps Caltongate developers Mountgrange should have read it before they arrived in the city the same year

From the article -

"And it isn’t just the residential market that will be in trouble. The commercial property sector also has an ominous feel about it. Speculative skyscrapers are going up as much because of their iconic appearance as for the economics of the tenanted sector, and more and more capital is being tied up in real estate rather than put to work in research and development. All over Europe too, money that should be funding the factories and infrastructure that would raise EU productivity is instead seeking out windfall gains in real estate. This will also end in tears and the net result will be the arrival of recession by 2010, something that may well be aggravated in Britain by a new ‘land tax’."

This great photographic website gives a good overall view of when Mountgrange appeared in 2005

Oh you with the inflated ego

2009-03-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

The following poem is dedicated to many involved in Caltongate and generally in the recent age of greed that is coming to a sticky end. But then every empire has its rise and fall...surely we can learn from our mistakes and starting living in the age of need not greed.

This poem will sadly most probably go over the heads of those who it so aptly applies.

Oh You With The Inflated Ego

Oh you with the inflated ego you feel that you are a true great

An aura of great self importance about yourself you try to create

Your head it seems to keep expanding with conceit you do seem overfull

You do like the sound of your own voice though you do talk a whole lot of bull

You have won for yourself a few admirers though you cannot count me as a fan

There's little that grate on my nerves more than the voice of a loudmouthed man

Oh you with the inflated ego about you it cannot be said

That you are lacking in self confidence or your ego needs to be fed

Your ego tells you how great you are though our egos to us often lie

And your three most important people will always be me, myself and i

You like to boast to other people of your wonderful job and new car

But somehow you cannot convince me of how marvellous a fellow you are

You feel that you are extra special but then your type of person not rare

For the disease that's known as swollen ego is now to be found everywhere.

by Francis Duggan

There is another chance to see the drama NEW TOWN this Thursday, that was shown in February.

Thursday 2nd April, 21:00 on BBC Four
Synopsis
Drama set in Edinburgh's New Town area. Starry architects Purves and Pekkala are offered the chance to redesign a Georgian church, but when the head of Scottish Heritage falls from the church tower in a mysterious accident, it becomes a question of whether he fell or was pushed.

The drama Old Town is still unfolding here in Edinburgh, so come along to A special "NO FOOLS ADMITTED" SOOT meeting on the 1st April 2009 at 7pm in Old Saint Pauls Church Hall, Jeffrey St. Finding Old Saint Pauls

Independent Republic of the Canongate

Scotsman now hoping Canadians will build their dream Caltongate

Caltongate - 'It's a golden opportunity for the

Caltongate Council Panto back for another season..........2010

Premium Article !

Premium Article !

Registered Article !

Good bye Priscilla

Edinburgh Council gives up on Caltongate

Celebrate Caltongate Passing.......

Ground Control Author in Edinburgh

The Missing Millions??

The Great Calton & Gate Swindle continues

Edinburgh Council Face Legal Action Over Caltongate

What The Dickens??

Its snow more for Caltongate...

Caltongate Hokey Cokey

Caltongate Panto to return for the next decade

Twelve Days of Christmas 2009

Silent Walk for Justice 4th Dec Royal Mile 3pm

New Old Town Trust Meeting Tonight

Head of Planning to be investigated on Trump Application

Andrew Holmes slates UNESCO

Down Memory Lane

Architects Awarding Other Architects

Dear Santa....

Keep on Blogging in the Free World

It should have been me!

Remembering the Haymarket Horror

Haymarket Howler RIP

Haymarket Horror Dead

Common Good in Scotland - Time to Reclaim!

National Poetry Day - "By Leaves we Live"

Liverpool is the New Dubai

This Is Edinburgh not Dubai

After the fall

and now for some good news...

Spies, Statues and CPOs

Malcolm "award winning hypocrite" Fraser

Glasgow Council Plans to Bulldoze Meadow

Stop The Trump Clearances

"Murrayburgh" on TV last night

Answers from Council on Calton Hill

Hill to stay open - letter in today's Scotsman

Scooby Doo, Edinburgh needs you!

Mountgrange Greed knows no bounds

Tripping up Trump

Say NO to compulsory purchase and sign their petition!

RMJM's Gazprom Tower in St Petersburg

Mark Cummings - Invicta PR latest

Bye Bye Mountgrange

Kashgar's endager Old Town

Old Town Development Trust Meeting 26th August 7.30pm

Old Town Development Trust Meeting 26th August 2009 7.30pm

The SOOT Gathering

Life behind the Haymarket Hotel Saga

Wearying process that can eat up your time – and your money

Pensioners at the heart of hotel protests

Edinburgh thanks UNESCO

Unesco deals blow to World Heritage Site development plans for Edinburgh

The Carbuncle Cup Award 2009 vote now...

Movie making in Edinburgh

Unesco meet Seville

Unesco insists Capital must scrap £300m Caltongate scheme

Save Our Old Town Guerrilla Gardener's stake a claim on land

Michael Sandel delivers the Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4

Film & Discussion Fri 19th 7pm

SOOT & Old Town Festival

The Council`s New Masterplan continued

Caltongate must be scrapped insist UNESCO

Unesco insists Capital must scrap £300m Caltongate scheme

London Calling

Edinburgh Castle Outdated

Old Town is becoming a ghost town

Mountgrange wants a Divorce!

The Great Calton & Gate Swindle part 2

Terry? Terry who?

SOOT meeting tonight 7pm

Mountgrange owes £18,000 in Rent

Caltongate failure set to free up condemned flats for rent