‘New airport logo is classy and modern’

Announcing the re-branding of anything in Edinburgh at the moment is brave. After the row over the “Incredinburgh” city slogan, the potential for attracting criticism from all quarters is obvious.

Edinburgh Airport’s new control tower logo with the strapline “Where Scotland Meets The World” is classy and modern. The airport, which is led by two local boys, should also be praised for choosing a city design agency for the work.

The airport needs to feel as though it belongs to the city. For too long, it has been like any other BAA airport, with the same signage, shops and layout.

Under new owners, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Gordon Dewar and his team have been given greater autonomy to run the facility. There is now an opportunity to make passengers feel they have landed in Scotland’s Capital as soon as they step off the plane and into the terminal.

By championing Edinburgh and Scottish shops and brands, as well as Scottish cuisine, the airport can do its bit to promote our country to the world.

However, one area which could be improved is the dreadful Kiss and Fly tax, which charges drivers £1 just to drop off friends or family at the airport. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see that axed at the same time as the new logo flies above the terminal?

In remembrance

A proper memorial at Mortonhall seems like the very least which Edinburgh City Council could do for those caught up in the ashes scandal.

Of course, it will be up to the families themselves to decide what they want and they should be given all the time and help they need.

Edinburgh’s environment leader, Lesley Hinds, has pledged to work closely with the charity Sands to that end as the investigation continues into the practices at the crematorium.

She has also acted quickly to set-up a hotline for concerned families in the wake of the exclusive revelations in the Evening News yesterday.

This response is to be praised but the question which won’t go away is: why this was allowed to continue for so long?

A second question that has now emerged it whether crematorium staff treated stillborn children differently to those who died in the first few months of life. Was a moral, or perhaps immoral, judgement made by staff here?

For that, we will have to wait for the findings of the inquiry. Only then perhaps everyone involved will be able to look to the future and grieve for the past.