CAST your mind back to the year 2002. It's not that long ago, yet it's hard to remember the notorious Greenside Place gap site which existed before the Omni centre opened its doors seven years ago.
Prior to the £100 million glass-fronted cinema, leisure and office complex that now dominates the east end of the city, all there was from the point where Leith Street meets Calton Road down to the Playhouse was a great big ugly gaping wound in the
heart of town – and it was like that for more than 20 years.
A succession of proposals for the site – including a new Commonwealth Games swimming pool and the BBC Scotland HQ – all fell by the wayside over the years, be it through lack of motivation by developers or decisions by planners.
As a result, steel rods from the car park below stuck out into the air as a seemingly permanent reminder of unfinished business while flourishing weeds added to the impression of urban dereliction at the foot of Calton Hill. It was, without doubt, a major eyesore.
It wasn't the only hole in the ground. For too long Edinburgh was blighted by gap sites across the city in prime locations.
At Tollcross, the area known as the SMT triangle lay derelict for around 20 years before becoming home to a new office complex; another huge stretch of dereliction could be found in the Pleasance (now filled with housing); the former site of Cinderella Rockafellas in St Stephen Street lay empty for years before developers finally built flats; the infamous gap on Castle Terrace was to be home to an opera house although it was Saltire Court which finally plugged it.
Then there were the sites on Niddry Street and the Royal Mile, Morrison Street, Chambers Street and Lothian Road. All have now been filled in the last decade or so, home to the city's financial district, hotels and museums.
The one site which never quite made it to the finishing line was that at Haymarket and even now the latest plan to plug that gap has been called in by the Scottish Government for discussion.
There will always be debate – rightly so – about the quality of what filled these gap sites, but there can be little doubt that Edinburgh has only benefited from their removal. Such development has turned the city into a dynamic, go-getting, can-do sort of place, rather than a rubble-strewn, run-down, do-nothing backwater.
So the apparent delight in some quarters that several developers are running into financial difficulties given the current credit crunch, which might jeopardise current projects, has to be tempered by the fact that without such developments Edinburgh could well end up going backwards as a thriving city.
In particular, the news that Mountgrange are in financial difficulties which could scupper its plans to build the controversial Caltongate proposals, needs to be greeted with something other than street parties in the Royal Mile. The company has posted losses in excess of £24m and has seen the value of the Caltongate site plummet by almost £18m, but that is not cause for celebration.
Obviously there are those who just don't like what is planned for the site, but surely the possibility of it now lying empty and godforsaken for the next decade or so is hardly a more preferable option?
What about all the associated local jobs that would come with its construction? It's hard to feel pleased at the idea that more work has dried up for the building industry in Edinburgh.
Similarly the idea that the new HBOS headquarters to be built on Fountainbridge may also stall is not something which should be greeted by hanging out the bunting.
Whether the new Lloyds Banking Group has an appetite for building a giant new flagship office complex is doubtful, but no matter how much the parents may want it to be so, it is even less likely that a new Boroughmuir High school is going to be built there.
While the council's plans for using £1.4m in next year's budget to stimulate economic growth is to be welcomed, surely help is also needed from the Scottish Government to ensure Edinburgh retains its role as a leader in business as well as tourism. Not just for the city's sake, but for Scotland's.
Still, at least one hole in the ground will be filled. The £40m SoCo development in the Cowgate is due to start soon and will take two years to complete. Hopefully by then the future of the other gap sites will be more concrete.
Spread Sick Kids' wordGREAT Ormond Street Hospital in London is, I'm sure, a wonderful place, staffed by wonderful people, doing wonderful things. Yet it never fails to annoy me when television ads ask me to donate cash to it. After all, here in Edinburgh, we too have a wonderful children's hospital, performing near-miracles on a daily basis.
Now the Sick Kids is launching a major campaign to raise £15m over the next four years, to put the icing on the cake of the new hospital when it opens in Little France.
Evening News readers are never short of contributing to the Sick Kids when asked and I'm sure the total will be reached long before the timescale is out.
Wouldn't it be nice though if people from all over the UK could also be made of aware of the campaign and contribute if they desired?
