Sighthill redevelopment - 'Compulsory orders would be tough step'

IT would take a pretty hard heart not to have at least a little sympathy for great-grandmother Helen Kelly, from Sighthill.

At the age of 72, she is determined not to give up the home she has lived in for the last four decades and in which she brought up her family - even though the community that once thrived around her has since disappeared.

Helen's three-bedroom home is one of several in four blocks of low-rise flats that are scheduled for demolition when Sighthill's three landmark high-rises are pulled down to make way for a new housing development.

Many people will be puzzled that Helen and her fellow refuseniks want to stay in an area blighted by decay. But they don't see Sighthill like Helen, with her memories of happy kids, chats to neighbours and trips to the local shops.

Councillors will later this week decide whether or not to force Helen and the owners of the three other properties to make way for the new homes by serving them with Compulsory Purchase Orders.

That would be a tough step. But, equally, it is clear that much-needed improvements to the local housing stock cannot be delayed because of a dispute with just four homeowners.

As with so many rows, at the end of the day this one centres on money, and in particular arguments over how much the council should compensate residents for the loss of their homes.

The authorities should realise that in cases such as those of Helen Kelly, that means more than just the value of bricks and mortar. And if the council has to pay a few thousand pounds more than it wants, most people would agree that is an acceptable price for progress.

Licence cap

tough rules that limit the number of licensed premises in The Grassmarket and Cowgate areas were brought in for very good reasons.

With so many pubs and clubs already, any more would just increase opportunities for drinking and encourage cost-cutting among competing landlords - increasing the risk of drunken antisocial behaviour.

But it is hard to see where a new licence for a bar or restaurant in an Ibis hotel would fit into this policy, or how it would be likely to lead to trouble in the streets.

The so-called Soco scheme is a chance for a multi-million pound investment to plug one of the Capital's ugliest gap sites.

Understandable though the cap on licences is, the policy should not stand in its way.