Letter: Think again

Given the manifest lack of municipal competence as far as Edinburgh's chaotic tram venture is concerned, the collapse of the Mountgrange/city council plans for the Canongate, and the aborted Princes Street Galleries project, we should be singularly less than reassured by the prospect of our councillors yet again setting themselves up as bright-eyed developers on behalf of the much put upon local taxpayer.

The proposal that a civic cultural asset such as the A-listed Assembly Rooms in George Street should be partly converted into some sort of shopping mall with yet another restaurant attached, thereby evicting Festival performers and stallholders at such events as antiquarian book fairs and craft shows, is not only philistine in the extreme, but also less than convincing in terms of a risk-free retail strategy.

The city centre retail interests in Edinburgh have, over two decades, been battling against the double disadvantage of high car parking charges and the profligate encouragement of out-of-town shopping parks.

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Has the council conducted an in-depth risk analysis of this project, or it is, yet again, taking a flyer at some speculative idea which simply hasn't been thought through? I would suggest they consider one or two less appetising precedents - the abject failure of the retail and leisure scheme which was going to replace Oban's fine Victorian railway station, and the blundering attempts of the burgermeisters of Perth who became entangled in a tortuous deal with a company that failed to deliver a promised retail complex within the shell of its Edwardian City Hall.

DAVID J BLACK

Spylaw Street

Edinburgh