With all the green space around us, council has an easy win
Always loved being a city rat, me, living in the very heart of things. I put this down to my hayfever. The mere sight of a magnificent vista involving hills, glens and heather makes me itch.
Any home we moved to had to fulfil certain criteria. There were the usual questions of schools and buses, but also, could I buy a pint of milk at nine at night? Oddly, I’ve never done that late night dairy dash. Gin, yes.
I’ve been a 15/20-minute city dweller all my life, and never realised I was being trendy. Yes, I do think the idea of living in a neighbourhood where young mums can push buggies to parks and Boots the Chemist is a great idea. Trust me, when I had my daughter, talking to the staff in the Kirkgate branch was a life saver.
Edinburgh is already a patchwork of mini-villages, each one with its shops, schools and parks. The council has an easy win here in the 20-minute city stakes. This might be why they seem to be sabotaging their efforts by green-lighting sprawling new developments on the edges of the city.
At least one new project can boast that the nearest amenity to them is a 20-minute walk to the airport. Handy if you’re a big fan of Easyjet, I guess.
We need housing, no doubt about that. Perhaps our council officials are overwhelmed by the number of applications on the system for student flats, and my goodness, there ain’t half a lot of them. I got to number 450 before giving up. Now, I know that all 55,000 of them have to live somewhere. But I also know that there are fewer and fewer applications for our universities, so who exactly is going to live in these boxy new buildings?
Most of the applications seem to be for developments within those fabled 15/20-minute walkable city targets. There must be land and space available for building and repurposing as housing. So couldn’t we put actual homes for Edinburgh folks in there? Just a thought. Anyway, must pop out. Need some milk.