Odeon development - 'All memories in world won't bring it back'

It is always wise to take a pinch of salt with any claims of new jobs or cash injections when they are made in support of controversial plans, especially when they propose major changes at a much-loved building.

And even if developing the Odeon on Clerk Street would create 120 new jobs and bring millions into the local economy, as those behind the scheme say, that wouldn't necessarily be reason enough to go ahead.

But it increasingly looks like Duddingston House Properties' plan to knock down the auditorium but retain the art deco frontage of the building is a compromise with which the city will have to live.

If the development goes ahead the cinema, which has been closed since 2003 and is in danger of falling into a state of disappear, will once again be a thriving part of the city's social scene, with an "arts" hotel, small cinema and an exhibition space.

What's the alternative? No cinema chain is interested in restoring the building to its original use.

None of the groups which bid for the building matched the valuation or came up with an acceptable Plan B - however well-meaning the intent.

Those who saw The Clash at the Odeon, or who queued to see Diamonds Are Forever there, will of course be sorry to see it change so fundamentally.

But all the memories in the world won't bring it back as a standalone entertainment venue - and without the current owner's plan it is hard not to see it falling further into ruin.

Homes boost

the days of soaring house prices may be well and truly over in the Capital but, ironically, getting on to the city's property ladder has rarely been harder.

The end of 100 per cent mortgages means the average first-time buyer without a hand-out from their parents is now 37 before they scrape together the 10,000-plus needed to secure a mortgage on most one- bedroom city flats.

The problems are similar to a greater or lesser extent across the UK, but the response in East Lothian has been particularly imaginative.

The local authority is creating a 1 million fund to guarantee part of the loans taken out by dozens of first-time buyers, making their deposits cheaper and interest rates more favourable.

It is a project which will be watched with interest by numerous public bodies and private companies who are acutely aware of how hard it is for their staff to buy homes in the Capital.