Plague on Architecture

 

Concerns

 

o                UK Planning Process

 

o                 Vision from City of Edinburgh Council to the regeneration and development of the Edinburgh Waterfront and financial commitment to the implementation.

 

o                 Design and Culture led approach as opposed to developer led regeneration.

 

o                 Lack of design strategy, creative spark or place making opportunities integral to the master planning.

 

o                 Quality and suitability of the development in relation to current and future needs of Edinburgh as a City in the 21st Century

 

o                 Should a single landowner be able to have such influence on a City? Compulsorily purchase back.

 

o                 Should the City be presented with just one project for such a unique opportunity? International ideas competition.

 

o                 The scale and magnitude of the Leith Docks regeneration plans as a single Outline Planning Application.

 

o                 Is CEC Planning department capable of examining and advising its planning committee?

 

o                 Is the present system of layperson committee able to assess such an application?

 

o                 Has the correct legal process been followed by CEC in relation to the adoption of the Leith Docks Development Framework initiated by Forth Ports PLC.

 

o                 Professional and public awareness to the levels of development planned and the stages that the major part, the Leith Docks site, has reached. Why has there not been any critical appraisal by the professional establishment or quasi government agencies i.e. A+DS etc.

 

o                 Density, Mixed Use and Green Space.

 

o                 Zoned Planning! Dated

 

o                 No real alternative transport strategies.

 

o                 Total pedestrianisation of the site.

 

o                 Physical use of the water.

 

o                 Effect climate change will have.

 

o                 Energy initiatives.

 

o                 No scope for change due to strict guidelines within the OPA Master Plan documentation provided.

 

o                 The effect of CAD computer aided design on the overall master planning and smaller scale design detailing of buildings and landscape.

 

o                 Ratio of affordable housing.

 

o                 Characterless housing in low-grade environments. Missed opportunity due to a general lack of vision and rigid design guidelines, which ultimately do not provide for an evaluation of quality.

 

o                 No provision of necessary schools and other social amenities required for the building up of communities and providing for young families and other age groups. Currently, the plans on offer provide only for dormitory towns at best and more likely ghost town ghettos where the need to interact with ones neighbours and to develop individual neighbourhoods is an impossibility.