EDINBURGH THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS
Last night, Edinburgh World Heritage and Built Environment Forum Scotland staged their inaugural ‘Heritage Hustings’.
This was a wholly welcome initiative which we hope will develop into a powerful lever on elected representatives in future.
Over 200 people attended. Unfortunately, a vocal minority among them were unmanageably self-important.
They couldn’t be bothered with microphones and felt under no obligation to respect the Chair.
They asked questions when they were meant to comment, and commented when they were meant to ask questions.
Their rambling, rhetorical assertions of faith or personal circumstances often lasted longer than the combined responses of the guests on the podium.
For much of the evening, certain of these familiar windbags blustered and harrumphed and interrupted each other unintelligibly, vibrating their wattles with righteous indignation and turning purple in ways most people think only happen between the pages of Lewis Carroll novels.
Their remarks are not included in the report below.
It was hugely frustrating for the serious-minded and polite majority who had come hoping to learn from or challenge Planning practitioners standing in the 4 May election.
The platform speakers were (left to right above): Cllr Ian Perry (Lab, Planning Convener), Cllr Alex Lunn (SNP, Planning Vice Convener), Cllr Joanna Mowat (Con, Planning Committee), Nick Hotham (Hustings Chair), Cllr Nigel Bagshaw (Grn, Planning Committee), David Stevens (LibDem, first-time candidate), Sandy Stoddart (Queen’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland).
The meeting was hindered by sometimes booming, sometimes indistinct acoustics. What follows is therefore an impressionistic account.
The meeting began at 6.00pm with a series of 3-minute statements.
IP: Labour Party is unequivocally in favour of the Edinburgh World Heritage Site (EWHS), and has risen to the challenge of managing and developing it. Surprised by how little public understanding or recognition there is of it. Need to improve maintenance, both in terms of waste management and building upkeep. Must be careful not to let Edinburgh become a museum. Must be firm and clear with developers about what is acceptable.
AL: Protection of the EWHS is enshrined in the SNP Manifesto. AL’s grandfather and father grew up in the city centre, and the whole family are immensely proud of its UNESCO status. AL seeks to manage balance between capital as a welcoming destination and a living city.
JM: Quoted Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (‘If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change’) and Patrick Geddes (‘The city is a living organism’). [Di Lampedusa fans spontaneously applauded.] People are as important as buildings. We need to: (1) quantify economic value of EWHS; (2) remove it from the Planning box and put it into ‘every iteration of Council policy’; (3) preserve large residential population in city centre.
DS: Began with an admission that he is not an expert on the minutiae of Planning. [‘Why are you here, then?’ grumbled someone at the back.] LibDems are broadly sympathetic to EWH Manifesto and Draft Management Plan. Wants radical overhaul of the national planning system, allowing ordinary people’s voices to be heard. [Next few words drowned out by thunderous applause.] Favours: (1) making it harder for developers to appeal; (2) allowing Councils to appeal; (3) introducing Council loans for repairs to historic buildings, to be recouped from eventual sale price; (4) more ‘civic education’ in schools.
SS: [Wrapped in metaphorical toga.] Claimed he was like a member of a Greek Chorus, here to represent the audience. Edinburgh is spectacular. Athens of the North. Concentration of intellectual power. Perceptual match of concept and appearance. Culture a tripartite collaboration of the dead, the living, and the yet-to-be-born. [Tumultuous applause, particularly from the dead and those wearing metaphorical togas.]
AL (right): Many of my constituents’ jobs depend on tourism. I’m comfortable with that. [Mass, sharp intake of breath.]
JM: Tourism is important but we shouldn’t focus on it exclusively. Need to recognise and develop Heritage’s attractiveness to the technological, finance and university sectors as well.
NB: Must encourage a thriving, independent retail sector in the city centre. Must control tourist-tat shops and large chain stores.
DS: Planning should encourage mixed uses for new developments, not just huge residential developments. [Hard to hear, but may have mentioned the Royal Bank of Scotland proposal on Dundas Street/Heriot Row.]
SS: Too many modern developments resemble ‘an aluminium-clad toddler’ screaming its head off. Edinburgh’s traditional soporific architectural qualities are more attractive. [Face like Cheshire Cat.]
IP: Drop in the pound has led to an increase in tourism. The city is out of balance. Labour Party is looking at ways to regulate Airbnb, and more evenly distribute student housing, to maintain city centre as a place for residents.
[Speakers on Planning Committee now tiptoe around old Royal High School elephant in the room. Cannot discuss live issues.]
DS (right): There’s already spare capacity. If new hotels are proposed, be careful about where they are sited.
NB: In general terms, we don’t need 6-star hotels for tourists willing to spend £6,000 on a bottle of whisky. This ‘brash allure’ is ‘seductive’ to some on the Planning Committee, but we need to move away from that.
SS: ‘I know nothing.’
JM: Five years ago a shortage of hotel beds did exist. Now we have enough. Council needs much tighter policy to prevent overprovision.
AL: I had no part in previous consideration of old Royal High School proposal. Edinburgh risks being like New York, where visitors only want to stay in very limited areas. Must do more to advertise hotels outside the city centre and EWHS.
NB: Problem is Councils don’t currently have sufficient power to regulate this. Andy Wightman [Green MSP] is looking at reviewing planning-use legislation to tackle the problem. This is an issue for Holyrood. I admit: I let out one room via Airbnb. [Indulgent chuckles across hall. Large percentage of audience unaccountably find points of interest on the ceiling or re-tie their shoelaces.]
JM: Agree – legislative change required. Cross-party consensus on this.
AL: I take this very seriously. Was surprised at numbers of Airbnb lets in Edinburgh.
SS: [Looks bemused, like owl newly flown into windscreen.]
[Meeting briefly descends into chaos as various impatient audience members compete to ask questions, foment revolution, argue about who should mate first, demand order, throw hands in the air, roll eyes, bark like seals.]
[Chair launches snap vote on whether Edinburgh should be allowed to have a Tourist Tax. Audience overwhelmingly in favour. Collective purr. Normality resumes.]
JM (right): [Reluctant to say Golden ‘Turd’ as young daughter is in the audience. Attempts prim expression. Fails.] The Golden **** is better suited to Disney’s Aladdin than Edinburgh. The Scottish Government’s overriding of local Planning decisions completely undermines democracy and faith in the Planning system. It fails to adequately address quality, and represents a real threat to EWHS status.
AL: Can’t comment on [live] Royal Bank of Scotland application. [‘No-one asked you to,’ says anonymous critic.] I wasn’t on the Planning Committee when the Golden Turd was approved. [Some audience members boo, groan, and shout ‘Excuses!’]
NB: Was opposed to the horrible Turd. Agree with JM about Scottish Government overriding decisions. We need a level playing field. Either nobody has right of appeal, or councils and communities should have right of appeal as well as developers.
DS: Scottish Government interference demonstrates typical centralising ‘control-freakery’ of the SNP.
SS: Tyranny of modernist architects wanting to make their mark on the city centre. Scotland has completely abandoned the Greek spirit. [Protracted, non-specific huffing and puffing spiced with Classical references.] Should beware of focusing too much on conservation while the prevailing culture around us is erecting golden excrement.
IP: Afraid that Golden Turd does diminish the universal value of the EWHS. If community and Council are united, they should have right of appeal. It need not unduly slow down the Planning process.
IP (right): Such integration forms part of the draft Management Plan.
AL: Agree with IP. [Leans forward. Makes noise like Peter O’Sullivan race commentary delivered from inside diving helmet.]
JM: Train every new councillor on the value of the EWHS.
NB, DS, SS: [If they said anything, I didn’t hear it.]
Question 5: Does the Planning Department currently have the skills and resources to do its job?
NB: Hamstrung by legislation. For example, Committee could not stop new Howe Street Sainsbury’s (which killed off 3 local businesses) because there was no change of use. Government reluctance to change the law. As for resources: massive staff reductions within Council mean level of service has fallen. Heritage resources have suffered.
DS: Holyrood must provide more money.
SS (right): Bemoans current ‘valorisation of youth’ and quotes 4th-century BC old fogey bemoaning how adults suck-up to kids. Blames students for dropping kebabs which give seagulls diarrhoea. [Looks pleased at own wit, erudition and discernment. Cry of ‘Shame on you!’ from the audience.]
DS: We should want to attract students to Edinburgh, but student occupation is too dense in some areas, such as Leith Walk. Council has not used its full legislative options to control over-concentration and attain more equal distribution.
[Audience member intervenes like North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test. Declaims at length about City of Edinburgh Council being in hock to the Licensing Board. Explodes noisily, short of target, somewhere over St Vincent Street. General pandemonium.]
NB: Am against demonising students. Council refusal of Southside application was overruled by Scottish Government.
JM: Student housing proliferates because it is cheap to develop and returns good profits. Giving away brownfield sites in city centre also affects what gets developed elsewhere in the city. Must work with Scottish Government to preserve EWHS.
AL: SNP Manifesto contains pledge to review the situation. Must spread out students more evenly across the city. [Leans forward. Makes noise like revolving cement-mixer full of paving slabs.]
IP: Not much to add. Government keeps overruling. Must ensure new student housing is outwith EWHS. Must ensure new developments over a certain size contain a set proportion of non-student housing.
Audience members at the back have not had fair crack at the whip. Old Town Community Council has collapsed twice, largely in response to disillusion with City of Edinburgh Council. City of Edinburgh Council is hand in hand with developers. Failure to honour obligation to Central Library extension. Disregard for locals. Betrayal. Broken promises. Bad decision making. Planning Department fails because of flawed and illegal processes. [Not a question mark in sight. Huge cheer from audience. Sustained applause.]
NB (right): Your point about unlawful processes is simply not true.
Question 8: Why should we trust you?
IP: It’s your right to vote. All I can say is that I have been absolutely honest in my answers. Now it’s your turn to judge.
AL: Even if I don’t agree with them, I have never doubted my colleagues’ integrity. If re-elected, I will continue to do my best in the job.
JM: Being a councillor is a tough job. We all do it out of a sense of public duty. ‘The ridiculous Planning system can tear your head in two.’ Address demands for reform to Holyrood.
NB: Judge us by our voting records – for example, on Caltongate, the old Royal High School, Craighouse. How councillors vote on the Development Management Subcommittee should be recorded as a matter of course. We must know how politicians act. [Loud applause.]
DS: I’ll give the job my full attention. Vote for change to keep larger parties up to scratch.
[Member of the public – who arrived long after panel had delivered their opening statements – interrupts to criticise panel for answering the question rather than giving a general impression of where they stand. He is politely ignored.]
SS: Moral, cultural and aesthetic environment is under threat. Too many students, too few apprentices. [In this observer’s opinion, too many Queen’s Sculptors in Ordinary in Scotland.]
[Thanks. Applause. The meeting concludes at 7.45pm.]—AM
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UPDATE: For changes to the Planning system recommended by the New Town & Broughton Community Council and the Leith Central Community Council, see Breaking news (26.4.17).