Down Memory Lane

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

The following is from the piece on Edinburgh

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

BBC piece here from March 2009 Caltongate Developers in administration

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

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

Unesco Slates Caltongate

The chickens are coming home to roost to the City Chambers, and it won`t be that long before we have our very own in the New Street gap site by the sound of things....

from todays article Unesco slates Caltongate scheme in The Scotsman -

full article here
"A DOSSIER into Edinburgh's World Heritage Site has strongly criticised the handling of a controversial development in the heart of the Old Town.
The Unesco report, delivered to the city council on Friday, has singled out for criticism the way the £300 million Caltongate scheme was approved by the authorities despite protests from a host of heritage groups."

"Jim Lowrie, the city council head of planning, said: "(The report] does criticise us over the Caltongate development. We are going to have to look at (that] before we respond in detail."

In The Sunday Herald Joanna Blythman wrote whilst celebrating it seems

Grand’ failure offers green light for green space "Rejoice! Caltongate, Edinburgh's grandiose £300 million development project, looks dead in the water because the company behind it, Mountgrange, has run out of dosh. The company has clocked up a loss of £24m and is so indebted that there is "a material uncertainty that casts doubts over the company's ability to continue as a going concern". As someone who lways thought the Caltongate project was a crock of ordure, I won't shed a tear if Mountgrange goes down the pan, taking its ill-conceived plan with it." full article here

Please note that the Canongate Community Forum AGM that was to take place tonight has been postponed.