Whos who?
This article which appears in the 2008 Spring Newsletter of ICOMOS UK (not available on line as yet) is an excellent overview of everything that is wrong with Caltongate.
Written by Conservation Architect, James Simpson OBE
Edinburgh Old and New Towns World Heritage site:
On 6th February, the Edinburgh City Council was minded to approve major elements of the “Caltongate” re-development scheme, in the face of massive opposition from the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and others, including a specially formed Canongate Community Forum which, through an effective web-site, has mobilised community support to keep homes for locals in the heart of the Old Town.
The “Caltongate” Site extends to 3.46ha on the North side of the Canongate, between Waverley Station and Holyrood, highly visible from the Calton Hill. The whole site is within the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1995. The plans commended by Councillors include a new five-star hotel, conference centre, houses and offices in the Old Town. It would involve the demolition of one listed building, all but the frontage of a second, and several tenanted houses.
Proposals to reduce 1930s stone-fronted tenements facing the Canongate were put on hold, with the developers, Mountgrange, being asked to look at ways of retaining the buildings for affordable housing. The Councillors’ decision will now be considered by Scottish Ministers.
ICOMOS-UK objected to the development, not on the grounds that the main part of the site - the former New Street bus garage - should not be developed, but because of the disastrous and unnecessary enlargement of the site to include adjacent land and buildings owned by the City Council, the disruption of the topography of the North side of the Old Town ridge, the unnecessary and unjustified demolition of listed and unlisted buildings in the Conservation Area, and for the sheer unattractiveness and inappropriateness of the proposals. As one resident put it ‘YES the bus garage site needs to be developed, but NO this is not the correct scheme and it will jar with everything else around it ....’.
The Old and New Towns were inscribed on the World Heritage list for their remarkable juxtaposition of two clearly articulated urban planning phenomena: the ‘herringbone’ burgh of the early Middle Ages, set on the tail of the crag, and the regular layout of the Enlightenment New Town, laid out on the high ground to the North. The harmonious relationship between these two contrasting historic towns, set astride what Sir Bernard Feilden has called the ‘great arena’ of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley valley, each with many important buildings, is what gives Edinburgh its unique character.
The burgage plots of the Canongate, founded as an ‘abbatial burgh’ dependent on the Abbey of Holyrood, were typically small and it is this pattern which gave the area its essential character and grain. Where this scale and grain has been respected, as in the development master-planned by John Hope to the South of the Canongate, the result is widely admired.
The “Caltongate” development as it stands will have a profoundly negative impact on the values of the World Heritage Site: it is also a missed opportunity to show that, if the fundamentals of size, scale and grain are got right, new development, however brave architecturally, can be successfully integrated with urban landscapes of international value. Edinburgh was for many years been seen as a trailblazer for urban conservation, commended for its far-sighted town planning policies initiated by Patrick Geddes - the father of town planning and of urban conservation - which had allowed the city’s skyline and urban spaces to evolve but maintain their significance over time.
“Caltongate” is symptomatic of a new trend towards development of extensive areas of cites as single projects - reminiscent, alas, of the Comprehensive Development Areas of the 1960s. Bath Western Riverside, a large, highly contentious scheme in the centre of the Bath World Heritage Site, is another. It extends to 35ha and thus occupies the same footprint as the Royal Crescent, the Circus, Queen’s Square, connecting streets, and some land to the south-west of these three great urban spaces, all combined. In Liverpool, Peel Holdings are floating plans for high-rise buildings, including 23,000 homes, along swathes of the land either side of the Mersey which would transform Liverpool in to a mini Shanghai.
All these projects raise the issue of how planning and redevelopment at this scale can respect the urban grain or sense of place in cities which have been recognised as having attributes marking them out as being of world significance. How should we define what is needed? As with so much else, Patrick Geddes’ principle of ‘conservative surgery’ puts the proper approach to the improvement of old cities in a nutshell. Geddes’ principles were followed to the South of the Canongate; not alas at “Caltongate”.
James Simpson gives the views of a long-standing Edinburgh resident on “Caltongate”:
· even more than the unlovable new City offices in Market Street, it intrudes into the Waverley valley and its podium disrupts the topography of the Old Town.
· the process through the planning system has been tortuous and exhausting for all concerned.
The suggestion that this particular development, and others like it, are essential for the wellbeing of the City is, frankly, bizarre. It is surely self-evident that it is the sheer quality and consistency of Edinburgh in architectural and planning terms, which are the foundations of Edinburgh's greatness. The recent succession of overlarge and inappropriate developments, of which “Caltongate” is currently the most important, are undermining those foundations.
Change is essential, and conservation is often said to be the management of change. If the “Caltongate” project is stopped in its tracks, then work can begin again in earnest on defining the sort of change which Edinburgh needs. This project must be stopped.
Canongate Community Forum is campaigning against plans to demolish listed buildings and people`s homes on the Canongate, the lower part of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh`s World Heritage Site.
More on the key players
MOUNTGRANGE CAPITAL PLC
- Manish Chande Chief Exectutive Chief Executive, Mountgrange Capital plc
As Chief Executive and co-founder of Land Securities Trillium Plc (LS Trillium), the UK’s leading total property outsourcing company, Manish was responsible for the strategy, direction and implementation of all aspects of its business. Manish was also a main board member at Land Securities PLC, which purchased LS Trillium (then Trillium) in November 2000.
Manish was at the helm of LS Trillium since its formation in 1997 when it won its first contract to own and manage the majority of the Department for Work property portfolio. LS Trillium has enjoyed enormous success, winning the groundbreaking BBC property partnership and the innovative British Telecom contract which had an acquisition value of £2.8billion and over 8000 properties.
Manish resigned from the Land Securities Group in March 2002 when he formed Mountgrange Capital plc with Mr Martin Myers focusing on real estate and other investments. These have included interests in National Car Parks, where he is non-Executive Chairman and MITIE Plc where he is a non-Executive Director. He is also Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a Member of the Audit Committee.
In September 2003, he was appointed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as a Commissioner of English Heritage.
In November 2003 he became a member of the Corporate Development Board of the National Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
Manish has been a Trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust since May 2005.
April 2007
Manish Chande, the former chief executive of Land Securities Trillium, will be named this week as a non-executive director of Vector Hospitality, the £2.75 billion hotel real estate investment trust (Reit), The Times has learnt.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article1701237.ece
Jan 2008
But mixed sentiment among investors scuppered the flotation of the Vector Hospitality hotel REIT and delayed the subsequent offloading of some of the 71 hotels identified for Vector’s portfolio. Other victims included the £700m sale of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin – still pending – and Royal Bank of Scotland’s £1.1b disposal of 15, mostly Hilton-run, hotels.
PPS are the PR Company behind Developers Mountgrange (Caltongate) also Viridor Waste at Portobello.
The company`s motto is - "Call PPS if ...you need to undertake community consultation or if you feel your scheme may run into political or community opposition." hotlinehere
They featured in The Evening Standard in July 2007 in an article titled "Bugging, Bullying, Forgery: Property PR Tricks" EveningStandard30thjuly2007
See Dispatches Programme aired on Monday 30th July 2007 Scroll down page to find link to programme (PPS part starts at 16 minutes 50 seconds to 25 minutes 24 seconds) although all of programme worth watching!)
On the 6th August 2007 another story concerning Mountgrange`s PR company PPS was published in EveningStandardaug07In Private Eye issue no. 1192 31st August 2007 are Caltongate developers Mountgrange and their PR lobbying firm PPS to read article select your print preview and enlarge to 100% http://www.eh8.org.uk/sites/eh8.org.uk/files/scan_7830212816_1.jpg
Mark Cummings the Scottish Director of PPS and Mountgrange`s spokesperson for the last two years or so left the company, 2 weeks after the Private Eye story was published in August. Now it appears he is still working for Mountgrange just under his new company name “Invicata”
Cummings and goings
Mark Cummings, the spin doctor who left controversial lobbying firm PPS this autumn, has landed a contract with PPS’s most high profile client in Scotland. Cummings worked on the Caltongate development account for PPS, but despite his departure was spotted at a meeting of the Caltongate Liaison Group last week. His new firm, Invicta Public Affairs, has now been taken on by Caltongate’s developer Manish Chande for what Cummings describes as “PR and public affairs, all the usual stuff”. Chande’s firm Mountgrange is expected to retain PPS’s services despite giving Invicta some work on the project. SOSarticle
October 23rd 07 It now appears that Director of PPS Scotland Mark Cummings has left the company and Former Labour Council Leader Donald Anderson has replaced him as director.
Former leader nets top PR job http://www.ppsgroup.info/Network.aspx?page=4
FORMER city council leader Donald Anderson has landed a top job with Mountgrange's public relations firm. He is to be the new Scottish director of PPS, one of the UK's biggest lobbying and PR companies, which is also promoting plans for a hugely-controversial giant waste depot in Portobello. However, Mr Anderson will have no involvement in the Caltongate scheme. He said: "I have supported job creation and economic growth throughout my career and I am keen to continue that work across Scotland. "Scotland needs new jobs and homes and we all need to play a part in that." Stephen Byfield, managing director of PPS, also said former PPS director Mark Cumming will continue overseeing Caltongate. http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1689642007
Mark Cummings of lobbying company PPS, "before taking charge of the Edinburgh office of PPS, Cummings spent years at the political coalface as a policy analyst in the Scottish Executive and a corporate strategist for Communities Scotland. He also works on behalf of Mountgrange which is developing the controversial Caltongate scheme.
See others who are up currently against this infamous pr outfit PPS Group
JerichoBoatyardOxford Council rejected plans Dec 07, but developers have lodged an appeal
The beautiful city of Bath is under threat at the hands of Property Developers Crest Nicolson whose PR firm appears to be none other than infamous PPS
Read the Icomosobjection to the Bath plans. It all sounds depressingly familiar doesn`t it?
UNESCO is the body responsible for World Heritage Sites. Bathpreservationtrust and bathheritagewatchdog are doing their best to protect their citys` heritage.
PPS are a corporate member of the Heritage Body Cockburn Association http://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/default.asp?page=29 http://www.ppsgroup.info/NewsEvents.aspx?page=23
Historic Scotland
See their response to Caltongate - Click on following link, then click on Associated Documents, then click on view Associated Documents, then scroll down to 20th Dec 07 response from Historic Scotland