CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
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SCOTLAND’S capital is being held back by flawed transport plans, a “mismanaged” planning system and an “almost Third World vision” for its city centre, a major debate has heard.
Leading architects and developers mounted an outspoken attack at a summit called to discuss how the city should look once the tram is up and running.
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Interesting quote from an architect:
“The planning department in Edinburgh is one of the worst we’ve dealt with anywhere in the world. We never have the kind of mismanagement problems elsewhere that we do here, and all sorts of obstacles always seems to pop up.”
It's a really minor scale, but... In our house the previous occupants had put in a weird narrow door in place of one part of a bay window to the back garden. We decided to return that to a bay window, and instead put in French doors from our dining room.
Long story short, that was over two years ago, probably getting on for over three years ago, and the permission still hasn't actually gone through (we were advised to just go for retrospective - glad we did in one way, but in another kind of a hostage to fortune).
Ironically the conversion of the bay was never applied for, so we've had to apply for converting it back to a window, telling them it was converted to a door before that. We need permission to put it back the way it was...?
Although, to be honest, I think the people we got in were a little dodgy.
"We never have the kind of mismanagement problems elsewhere that we do here, and all sorts of obstacles always seems to pop up.”
There are two parts to that sentence - not necessarily related.
It's a long time since I had any dealings with the Planning Dept, so I no longer know anything about its staff, processes or 'culture'.
It's certainly the case that over decades planners/politicians (and public) have been fairly conservative. Which is one reason Edinburgh wasn't overrun by roads.
Things like the St. James Centre have served as a very visible reminder not to 'do that again'.
In the past large companies (notably Scottish and Newcastle) got away with things because 'the planners' knew they were "large employers" and "could move elsewhere".
I suspect that the second part of the developer's sentence implies that 'the planners' didn't just let them do what they wanted.
Planning is far from an exact science - even less (in spite of legislation/rules) just a 'process'
In an ideal world environment, streetscape, heritage, employment etc. wouldn't be in conflict, but...
Then of course there are egos - developers, architects, planners politicians, campaigners...
Our lack of civic pride and collective action is exposed
Couldn't agree more. It's often hard to see the beautiful city beyond the endless roadworks, forest of street signage (Do this. Don't do that. Do it somewhere else), "temporary" advertising hoardings, half-baked and half-er**ed "urban beautification" schemes, identikit chain shops competing to have the brightest and shiniest plastic facades and general tat to be found on every corner. Not to mention cars, cars and more cards. Everywhere.
Looking at historic photographs of Edinburgh, part of the appeal and charm is the complete lack of the above. You can see the buildings and the city as they were intended.
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