Volunteers from Greener Leith have recently been busy attending various meetings to keep abreast of all the plans and developments that affect life in Leith. A couple of weeks ago Forth Ports invited Greener Leith to their presentation of the plans for the first 'villages' to be built as part of the regeneration of Leith Docks, put together by international architects and town planners RTKL .

RTKL were behind the regeneration of Baltimore which apparently resembles the size and character of Leith Docks. Greener Leith was very pleased to see that many of the comments we (and others) made on the earlier designs have been taken to heart - even if they were forced to by the planning committee in some cases. Not least Forth Ports’ commitment to sustainable energy regeneration and a civic and/or landmark building to give a focus to the development. As long as they can find someone to pay for it. On the down side, there is still no more than 20% greenspace – probably the minimum they could get away with – and we imagine that every paving stone and hanging basket has been included in that figure.

In order to accommodate the terns who live in one of the docks, the heights of some of the buildings on Britannia Quay have been lowered from 8 to 4-5, which has resulted in a reduction in the number of dwellings of 700. Forth Ports expert consultants have confidently calculated that this will have a 4% reduction (700 is 4% of the 15,900 originally planned) in traffic and noise from building and access , but have never actually put an exact figure on the increase in the amount of traffic that the entire development will generate. So 4% of 'we don't know' is still 'we don't know.'

Forth Ports also seems to have acquired an appetite for hotels in the area, presumably to accommodate all the folk who will visit the Iconic Landmark Building. Coincidentally, Greener Leith is aware of three possible hotel developments on or around Leith Walk, some of which were to be flats or student accommodation. Could it be that private developers, having realised that they have built a bit of a glut of 'luxury' 2-bed flats in Edinburgh, are now putting their hopes on hotel rooms? And of course it is large hotel developments that underpin many of the other redevelopment schemes in the city. Caltongate, and Haymarket, for example. WE wonder whether a cheaper pound will actually bring that much of a boost to the numbers of American tourists to the city? We aren't clever enough to work it out though.

As you may know, Edinburgh’s status as a World Heritage Site has been under close scrutiny with the proposed redevelopment of Haymarket, Caltongate, St James Centre and Leith Docks.  The invitation to air our views on the Forth Ports Development to members of the World Heritage Commission came entirely unexpected. The city Planning department should be congratulated for having the courage to invite community groups, such as Greener Leith, who have been publicly critical of the planning process to speak directly with the World Heritage Commission on this subject.

The Greener Leith Committee came up with the following comments that were duly aired at the meeting:

1. Edinburgh is a unique city in that it views into and out of the city are so important. Ie, from the top of Arthur’s seat, from Fife, from the Pentlands and coming in by boat from the Forth. These views in and out of Edinburgh are extremely important and should be protected.
2. The skylines. The skylines are currently dominated by natural landforms and the Castle, which is made from the same stone and is in visual harmony with its surroundings. The exception is Western Harbour, which ignores the building traditions of Northern European coastlines that relied on the gradual accumulation of built forms. High rise buildings in Leith have a visual impact on the views into and out of the centre of town, and impact on the whole Forth estuary. We don't think it is enough to focus on conserving a few defined 'view corridors,' in the regeneration of Leith Docks.
3. Heritage. The industrial past needs to be remembered and enhanced in order to maintain a sense of place. The connection between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Leith needs to be recognisd and celebrated by new building. New building shouldn't aim to obliterate the past.
4. Edinburgh is a walkable city. New building needs to attach much greater priority to the needs of pedestrians and cyclists and integrating these travel modes with public transport.
5. Building materials. In the regeneration of Leith Docks Greener Leith is looking for honesty in the use of materials: real stone, real concrete and no fake stuff, like faux blue copper, reconstituted stone or concrete treated to 'look like stone.'
6. Community consultation. We need lots more of it and it needs to be an ongoing process. The planning department in particular needs to build in time for voluntary groups to participate meaningfully. For example, Voluntary groups should all be given equal treatment at planning committee meetings and papers should be dispatched in plenty of time. Lastly, we believe impressions of new projects need to look realistic (ie, there just won’t be much walking around in t-shirts on a windless day in Leith Docks, even with Climate Change in full swing). Consultation should be undertaken by developers and planners in a spirit of transparency, honesty and good faith.

Wondering whether our comments had made any impact, Greener Leith spotted this article in the Observer last Sunday. Since then there have been conflicting messages in the press about what UNESCO really thinks. Perhaps it's best to wait until they submit their final report before we comment.

Greener Leith hopes that our efforts to make Leith Docks a sustainable and worthy counterpart to the Old and New Town will not be in vain.