The 17km prom beside the seaside

FAMILIES mingle with skateboarders and dog walkers on the promenade, some just out for exercise, while others are bound for the new beach on Granton's north shore.

En route, they pass youngsters who have stopped at a kiosk for an ice cream, and further east, smoke billows from a barbecue area where a group of friends are grilling burgers.

This is the vision of how Edinburgh's waterfront could look on a typical Saturday afternoon 30 years from now when a 17km walkway from Joppa to Cramond, is complete. The council announced last week that work on the ambitious project, which will cost "tens of millions of pounds", is set to start next year.

The council believes the promenade development will bring visitors flocking into currently neglected parts of the coast and reinvigorate seaside areas that have traditionally attracted visitors. But exactly what changes can we expect to see on Edinburgh's waterfront in coming years and how popular are they likely to prove?

Picnic areas with barbecue facilities, restaurants, plazas, public art and even an "iconic" bridge between Leith Docks and Western Harbour are expected to draw visitors to the waterfront, while the walkway itself may be used for sporting events such as the Edinburgh Marathon.

Developers have visited promenades in Malmo, Copenhagen, Portsmouth and Cardiff Bay and studied others in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Western Australia, to get ideas. Their aim is to create a high quality public walkway to open up new sections of Edinburgh's coastline to recreational use.

Along the promenade will be a dozen "nodes" – centres of activity, where visitors can stop to enjoy facilities like restaurants and interpretation centres, do some bird watching or just sit on a bench to rest or admire a sculpture.

Work on the first phase, costing 7.5m, will begin next year with a plaza area built in Portobello, as well as new sections of the walkway at the Western Harbour in Leith and on the parkland in Granton.

About 5.4m of cost of the first phase of the promenade will come from the council, with remaining money coming from developers such as Forth Ports and Waterfront Edinburgh and National Grid.

Keith Anderson, director of Waterfront Partnership, is leading the promenade scheme, which he says will be a vital part of future waterfront development.

"It is a really important signature project to provide a new walkway and cycling route along the complete northern edge of the city. Any major waterfront development in any major city has tried to make sure the edge to the water is publicly accessible. We are trying to create a high-quality and well-managed public route."

A main feature of the route will be the nodes, which are intended to be "destination points", offering some kind of recreation or entertainment, from barbecue areas to concert venues. A major hub will be at Newhaven fish market, where there are plans for another restaurant to adjoin Loch Fyne and there is also interest in creating a heritage museum.

Another major destination will be Ocean Terminal, next to the tram stop, where an area could be set aside as a concert and events venue.

Granton's north shore has a small sandy slope, known to few and in an area now used for industrial purposes. The vision there is to create a new good-quality beach, which would comfortably fit a few hundred people and have facilities such as toilets and kiosks. In Granton Harbour, a new community boat yard and winter boat storage area will be built as well as other facilities such as showers to support the many yachts which dock there.

Visitors may even be able to cross the River Almond from Cramond to the Dalmeny Estate again.

The boat service which ended a few years ago could be replaced by a pedestrian and cyclists' bridge crossing the Almond to connect to the Route 76 cycleway, which would extend the promenade through Queensferry into Fife.

So what do the locals think? Allan Buchan, better known as crime writer Allan Guthrie, who lives in Portobello, says he has real concerns about the development. "From what I can tell a lot of our green space will be replaced with unsympathetic residential and business development.

"One plan I saw showed flats that were ten storeys high which would change the whole character of Portobello. Another suggested that the library – which is used by many old people – would be moved down to the wet and slippery seafront.

"I have nothing against the idea of developing the area in theory. There just needs to be adequate consultation with residents and an infrastructure needs to be put in place before work goes ahead."

But Davina Toddie, site warden of Silverknowes Caravan Club, is feeling positive about the plans.

"The area has changed for the better in many ways over the past ten years or so and the new development work will only make things even better," she enthuses. We plan to stay for the next five years and we are excited about how the changes will impact upon us. It can only be a good thing for Edinburgh."

COASTAL PATHWAY NOT A NEW IDEA

THE idea of an attractive coastal promenade, or "boardwalk" as it was previously known, has been an aspiration for Edinburgh for several years.

In February 2004, Sir Terry Farrell, the city's design champion, proposed a ten-mile boardwalk along Edinburgh's coast.

In January this year, though, Sir Terry criticised the "lack of joined-up thinking" over the Waterfront plans.

He said: "The entire Waterfront of Edinburgh should be regarded as the finest waterfront opportunity in the UK, if not Europe.

"There has been very little joined-up thinking and little vision of the scale and quality that distinguishes Edinburgh's past urban planning achievements."

Via Albana and Via Romana were among the names initially suggested for the new route, though they have since been dropped in favour of the Waterfront Promenade title.

Click here to see a detailed area-by-area map of the plans for the Waterfront. (This link will open as a PDF.)