Filmhouse plan is too high for Edinburgh’s skyline – John McLellan

Planned Filmhouse tower would be too high for Festival Square; Lothian Buses needs a cunning plan; and a self-important city councillor should learn about etiquette from a Queen and a Cardinal, writes John McLellan.

An artist's impression of the plan for the 'new' Filmhouse

The swooping lines of the Scottish Widows building dominates the West End skyline and as such developers are quick to use it as a guide when drawing up designs for new buildings nearby. We had the 18-storey Haymarket hotel which was ultimately rejected and even though its replacement is significantly lower, it’s still tall for the immediate area.

So now we have a vision for a new home for the Filmhouse in Festival Square, and while the impact on the supremely ugly Sheraton matters little, an 11-storey tower, even if part is underground, looming over the Usher Hall and giving the Castle Rock the finger certainly does.

Last in the bus line

Word reaches us that Lothian Buses’ proposed rationalisation of stops is off, presumably due to public concern. The old management believed reducing stops and increasing bus lane restrictions were essential for the network to run more efficiently as pressures to deliver more profit mounted.

Somebody must have a cunning plan because the company can’t fund the tram, increase profitability and efficiency and maintain existing community services at the same time.

With reports of frequency mysteriously dropping on some routes and the axe falling on the 69 in Willowbrae and the 6 in Dumbiedykes without consultation, the customer appears to be coming last. Unless the customer is the council.

Entitled to a title?

Word also reaches me of an irate councillor harrumphing around the City Chambers last week because an officer had the temerity not to use their “proper” title. A complaint about disrespectful behaviour is apparently being considered, which if it ever happened would betray a remarkable level of self-importance.

I recall the irritation on a priest’s face when greeting the late Cardinal O’Brien with a cheery “Hello, Keith” rather than Eminence or Cardinal, but the man himself wasn’t bothered in the slightest. Courtiers might frown, but even the Queen doesn’t pull people up for the wrong form of address.

When is a Tory, not a Tory?

“Oh aye, here come the Tories,” said a smoker as he spotted three gents in all their black tie finery entering Shakespeare’s bar after the Buenos Aires Ball in aid of the Red Cross at the Sheraton Hotel last Saturday. Spot on as far as Colinton councillor Jason Rust is concerned, but who were the other two Conservative carousers? None other than Edinburgh Labour leader Cammy Day and ex-Lord Provost Donald Wilson. Need to raise your profile, chaps.