Airport roads - 'This idea will surely never take off'

Edinburgh Airport's so-called kiss-and-fly tax was never going to be popular. After all, who wants to pay for something that you have been used to getting for free?

Yet few people will buy the idea of the city council riding to the rescue of hard-pressed air travellers by performing a land grab on the airport's roads.

This just doesn't make sense, no matter how unpopular the 1 levy for dropping off or picking up passengers.

Former Lord Provost Lesley Hinds suggests that the local authority adopts the roads, in order to prevent the possibility of further charges being added in future.

That would give the council control over the highways, but also responsibility for their maintenance.

That does not come cheap, especially when you consider the airport has just invested 300,000 on their upkeep.

Instead of looking to lump costs like this on to the public purse, the city needs to be doing the opposite right now - trying to find more private companies prepared to invest in our infrastructure.

Thankfully, there are many senior figures at the City Chambers who realise that, and this idea will surely never take off.

It must not be allowed to. The sums simply don't add up.

Primark jobs boost

There has been much talk of the Primark effect since the store which all bargain-hunting fashionistas adore unveiled plans to open on Princes Street.

All the attention has been on the impact it will have on shopping patterns, with droves of customers expected to flock back to the western end of Princes Street once the sprawling 75000 sq ft store opens in time for Christmas 2011.

The huge boost it will bring to city job-seekers has been largely overlooked until today though.

The store will create 600 new posts, and Primark has pledged to work with the city council in order to retrain Edinburgh's long-term unemployed and offer them first refusal on most of the vacancies.

That's a rare ray of sunshine amid all the gloom about public spending cuts and their knock-on effects which we once again report elsewhere in today's paper.

Taken with plans for a new Apple store further along Princes Street, it's a welcome reminder that not all news in the city today is bad.