On the Waterfront - 'We need to create proper communities'

the admission by the city's planning chief that he is "embarrassed" by the development of parts of the Waterfront is a long-overdue recognition of what has been obvious to most people for many years.

Jim Lowrie says the number of unsold one and two-bedroom flats built in Leith, Granton and Newhaven shows that wrong decisions were taken to allow so many of them to be built.

He rightly points the finger at the previous administration but also has to admit personal responsibility for more recent "mistakes". Most worryingly, he warns it could take 15 years for some areas to recover.

Mr Lowrie's candour is refreshing, but he and his predecessors were charged with planning ahead - and they clearly failed to do so.

Yet more than four years ago the News railed against what we labelled "monotonous development after development of two-bedroom flats" on the Waterfront.

A few months later, in January 2008, globally-renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell warned there was no coherent vision for the area.

Quite why it has taken the city's planners so long to reach the same conclusion is puzzling indeed. Yes, they have a big job to do in protecting older buildings which do so much to enhance Edinburgh - but attention needs to be spent on areas of new development too.

Fortunately an opportunity is looming to address these failures, with the publication due at the end of this year of the main issues which will be addressed in a new Edinburgh Local Development Plan.

It must include a rethink on the Waterfront which provides a vision for proper communities with employment opportunities and much-needed family homes, rather than just retail developments surrounded by pads for bachelors and yuppies.

Not a sound plan

it is hard to believe that there is a pressing need to spend 270,000 on a new sound and voting system for MSPs.

The current consoles have only been in use for seven years, having been put in for Holyrood's grand opening in 2004.

They may have been exposed to a cruel amount of hot air and the odd bit of political sparring since then, but if they have reached the end of their useful life then perhaps the wrong ones were bought in the first place.

Or could it be that Scottish Parliament officials and politicians, like kids in a gadget shop, can't resist upgrading for the sake of it.

After all, it's the rest of us who have to pay for it.