The Edinburgh Index - 'It will offer a fuller picture of progress'

It is hard to shake the feeling of standing at a crossroads as we look to the future and for signs of an economic recovery.

As inflation continues to rise and the axe begins to swing on public spending cuts, our prospects still largely hang in the balance.

Will we be spending the coming months spotting the famous "green shoots" of recovery as we all hope? Can we finally banish our fading fears of a double dip recession? Or will we be too busy counting the cost of inflation on our weekly shop?

The answers to these questions will define 2011 for most of us - and not least the coalition government at Westminster.

Having asked voters to share the pain from cuts and tax rises, there will surely be a heavy political penalty to pay if they cannot in return steer the economy back to steady growth.

In Edinburgh, we look better placed than most parts of the country to prosper. But predicting the economy remains a tricky business.

That is why today we are launching our Edinburgh Index in order to give you a fuller picture of the progress that we are really making in the Capital.

We will go beyond the headline statistics and trawl the seemingly mundane for significant signs. The number of planning applications lodged with the city council, for instance, is a key indicator of confidence in the building trade.

We hope you will find our regular updates both informative and entertaining.

But above all we hope that they will bring us all some much- needed good news.

Protect the Forth

The sewage leak in the Firth of Forth is a warning of the need to be vigilant when it comes to what is one of our greatest natural assets.

Thankfully, no lasting harm seems to have been done on this occasion, although water quality monitoring is continuing.

But it is easy to forget just how lucky we are to have such a clean and thriving estuary on our doorstep. No less an authority than David Attenborough believes the gannets of the Bass Rock, for instance, are "one of the 12 wildlife wonders of the world".

The Forth also plays a crucial part in the Capital's economy, providing jobs for hundreds of people.

We fail to protect it at our peril.