- Old Town facing “unprecedented pressure for redevelopment”
- Edinburgh World Heritage Trust struggling to conserve key areas
- Former Council properties on Royal Mile being sold for development

Key Quote: “In any other major city in Europe, I don’t think sites would be developed this way, without open competition of designs available for scrutiny or debate.” Peter Wilson, of Napier University Story in full

SCOTLAND’S capital risks losing the “distinctive character” that makes it a UNESCO World Heritage site if it fails to get the balance right on new development, the director of the city’s heritage trust has warned.

Zoe Clark, director of the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, said the Old Town, in the historic heart of the city, was facing “unprecedented pressure for redevelopment”.

Edinburgh’s OId and New Towns were named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996.

The Edinburgh World Heritage Trust struggles to conserve the city’s architectural heritage with a budget of just 1.1 million a year. And the city centre is facing a string of developments worth hundreds of millions of pounds that could reshape its face from Princes Street to the Royal Mile.

At the 200 million Caltongate development, plans to demolish two buildings on the Royal Mile, along with a listed Victorian school, have been bitterly opposed. The development would produce a five-star hotel, apartment and conference complex in the Waverley Valley. Trust staff are now voicing concerns over other sites, such as the 16th century Advocate’s Close, where former council properties in some of the oldest areas of the Royal Mile are being sold.

UNESCO - the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation - has become more active recently in defending 800 World Heritage sites around the world, particularly in Europe.

It placed the Elbe Valley in Germany on the “endangered” list over a proposed bridge, persuaded Vienna to block a high-rise building and last year sent inspectors into the Tower of London over the threat of looming new skyscrapers.

The Edinburgh World Heritage Trust manages, protects, enhances and promotes the site on behalf of UNESCO.

Ian Murray, Edinburgh City Council’s deputy planning convener, insisted that when leading UNESCO officials visited last year, they had nothing but praise.

Mr Murray said yesterday that the council was pursuing a “fine balance” on development.

“The council take the world heritage site as the most serious issue we deal with,” he said. He added that the council had moved to rid the city of “real eyesores” in the centre.

But Ms Clark, whose local heritage body is part-funded by the council, warned the demolition of any building in the Old Town must be “carefully examined”.

The scale of new buildings must enhance the city’s contours and views, “not be driven by developers’ commercial concerns”.

“The Old Town is facing unprecedented pressure for redevelopment and Edinburgh has got to get it right if the city is to retain the distinctive character that its economy and tourism industry rely on and that make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” she said.

Edinburgh can balance conservation and development, as long as new development “reinforces that all important sense of place rather than destroying it”.

The medieval character of the Royal Mile lies in its narrow wynds and closes, arching down in a herringbone shape, where wynds open to magnificent views.

By contrast new buildings, from the Caltongate to the 40 million new glass-domed hotel planned on the Cowgate fire site, make their first appearance via computer simulations.

The heritage trust is currently drawing up a new statement setting out the significance of the Edinburgh World Heritage site. The trust says major projects - from Quartermile and Caltongate to plans to replace and enlarge the St James Centre on the east end of Princes Street - should be considered together, not one by one.

Last week the trust unveiled, along with Edinburgh City Council, the Skyline project to establish what are the key skyline views and vistas in the city, such as those around Edinburgh Castle. It will also assess where tall buildings may be more appropriate, as on south-west approaches to the city or in Leith.

The project would not set height limits but aims to protect Edinburgh Castle, for example, from buildings that obstruct views or even loom behind it.

Ironically, activists with the Save Our Old Town organisation claim the council’s new headquarters has breached its own height guidelines on views down the Waverley Valley. It has certainly blocked views from Jeffrey Street, in the Old Town, across to the classic Greek-revival building of the Royal High School on Calton Hill.

Heritage staff feel they have already lost one major battle over the 400 million Quartermile development - which overlooks the Meadows from its site at the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary - where 19th Century buildings by classic architects were demolished.

Ms Clark has spoken out strongly against the planned demolition of three buildings at the Caltongate, including two tenement buildings on the Royal Mile itself, to open access on to the Mile.

Several Edinburgh architects complain of the rate of change, and the alleged lack of open competition. Even though their job is about creating buildings, one said: “I feel too much is being lost at the moment.”

UNESCO feels the developments have to be looked at together for the impact on the city. “It’s too late for Quartermile. It’s not too late for Caltongate,” another said.

The architect Malcolm Fraser, whose projects include the award-winning Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile, said the trust needs to speak out more. “I think they have the opportunity to show more leadership.

“The trouble for us architects is that there are so many organisations out there - MSPs, community groups, heritage groups - and we go from one to another and they all say different things.

“They should show more leadership and be convening these groups, bringing them together in one place so that there’s one place to talk about the centre of Edinburgh.”

Peter Wilson, of Napier University, the project architect on the Museum of Scotland, said architects could not turn out pastiche copies of historic buildings. But he added that there was not enough open competition for major city sites.

“In any other major city in Europe, I don’t think sites would be developed this way, without open competition of designs available for scrutiny or debate.”

Mark Cummings, a spokesman for the Caltongate developer Mountgrange said the masterplan for the site had been developed by Edinburgh City Council in consultation with the local community and the business community.

He said: “All the proposals are in keeping with the planning policy for the area. The World Heritage Trust was a key consultee.

“We think that a five-star hotel is an additional gain to Edinburgh that far outweighs the loss of the school.” HERITAGE HAS A HIGH PRICE IN CITY OF ARCHITECTURAL TREASURES

MAINTAINING and using Edinburgh’s architectural heritage is not cheap. Even the cobbles on the Royal Mile have their price.

Edinburgh City Council fought a court battle with a contractor paid 4.5 million to re-cobble the famous road in the mid-1990s after it was alleged stones had begun giving way under vehicles.

Meanwhile, after nine years and 7 million repairing stonework and stained-glass windows, the 900-year-old St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile is nearing the end of its revamp. A fundraising bid is now under way to buy a 2 million lighting system with 24 chandeliers to better illuminate the building’s glories. To date, work has run from repairs on the tower and crown spire to a restoration of the Thistle Chapel.

The Edinburgh World Heritage Trust has about 1.1 million a year to spend on conservation projects. But it says VAT rules requiring a 17.5 per cent charge on repairs and restoration means nearly a fifth of the cash ends up with the Treasury - while no VAT is charged on new buildings.

The businessman and prominent Catholic donor, Sir Tom Farmer, is funding a bid to buy the derelict United Presbyterian Church on Blackfriars Street. As yet, there is no estimate on what it would cost to turn the empty church into an “interfaith residence and cultural centre” for Tibetan Buddhist monks and Mother Teresa nuns.

The Queen’s Gallery at Edinburgh’s Palace of Holyroodhouse was inaugurated by the Queen in 2002. The Queen’s Gallery was built in the shell of the former Holyrood Free Church and the 19th Century Duchess of Gordon’s School at the entrance to the Palace.

It has hosted major exhibitions from the Royal Art Collection. The project, run by Edinburgh-based Benjamin Tindall Architects, cost 3 million. Tindall turned the building into a first-floor gallery with a sweeping staircase rising up to it.

The 3 million Scottish Storytelling Centre on the capital’s Royal Mile is far removed from some of the Royal Mile’s bigger developments. It is also in one of the most sensitive sites, nestled against the famous 15th-century John Knox House, a historic building in the heart of the World Heritage site. Architects Malcolm Fraser opted for a modern bell tower made of Dunhouse Grey stone and a stainless steel and glass front.

The Hub, the Edinburgh International Festival Centre on the Royal Mile, was an instant hit with visitors in 2000. The Gothic former Tollbooth church was refurbished, also by Tindall - at a cost of 7.5 million - to house a coffee house and restaurant, gift shop, ticket facilities, with the Dunard Library upstairs. Caltongate

A 200 million development on the 5.2 acre site promises a five-star, glass-fronted 200 bed hotel, 200 new flats and 100 serviced apartments. Plans include a major new walkway to replace the existing Jacob’s ladder current through-route, a new urban square and a cultural quarter.

The building replaces the former bus depot but will also demolish a listed Victorian school and two tenement buildings on the Royal Mile itself, in order to provide access to the hotel. Critics s are wary of the impact on Waverley Valley views, and question how the local area will accommodate the inrush of people and cars. Quartermile

According to conservationists a bitter battle has been fought and lost, over the 400 million Quartermile development to turn the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary into luxury homes and facilities.

Blocks of flats will turn the skyline over the Royal Meadows from the gentle, pointed profile of the building designed by David Bryce in the 1870s to “slabs”, said one critic. Some historic 18th and 19th century buildings have been retained on the site by architects Sidney Mitchell and William Adam , but others have been demolished - to the fury of protesters.

The Lothian Regional Council headquarters on the corner of George IV Bridge and the Lawnmarket are set to be replaced by The Bridge. The Bank of Scotland is backing the project, which includes a 130 bed hotel and would also be the base for the only bank branch on the Royal Mile.

The 1970s building was little loved - then council leader Donald Anderson called it “horrible” - but plans for its replacement, on what is said to be the oldest viaduct in Europe, will be closely watched. Advocates Close

Buildings in and around Advocate’s Close, off the heart of the Royal Mile, are being sold off by the council after its move to new headquarters. Developers will clearly have to work with existing buildings here.The buildings could be developed for housing, retail, or a small hotel. They include 19th century buildings on Cockburn Street and St Giles Street, and A listed buildings on the High Street and Advocate’s Close. No’s 2 and 4 Advocate’s Close were built for Clement Cor, an Edinburgh burgess, in 1588. There is also a four-storey tenement dating from 1615.

Related topic

- http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1226
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1226

More than 100 Mississippi policyholders who sued State Farm Insurance Cos. for refusing to cover damage from Hurricane Katrina have been paid this week as part of a multimillion dollar settlement with the insurer, attorneys for the homeowners said.

State Farm agreed last month to pay about $80 million to settle lawsuits filed by 640 policyholders whose claims were denied after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm that destroyed tens of thousands of homes on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, an attorney whose legal team represents all 640 of the policyholders, said Tuesday that more than 100 of his clients have received checks this week. The rest are expected to be paid by the end of next week.

“It’s incredibly rewarding,” Scruggs said. “This is something I wish I could do for the whole Gulf Coast.”

Max and Linda Ingram, who moved north to Carthage, Miss., after Katrina leveled their beach-front home in Ocean Springs, drove down Monday to pick up their check and sign the paperwork necessary to settle their lawsuit.

“It felt like justice had been served,” Max Ingram said. “I just wish all of the policyholders could experience the same thing. The coast can’t rebuild if the insurance companies don’t pay.”

State Farm had denied the Ingrams’ entire claim, blaming the damage to their home on Katrina’s storm surge. The Bloomington, Ill.-based company and other insurers say their policies cover damage from a hurricane’s wind but not from its rising water, including wind-driven surge.

Max Ingram, 70, said the terms of his settlement are confidential, but he noted that his share of the money will allow him to finish building a new home in Carthage.

“I didn’t want anything more than what they owed me, and I didn’t want anything less,” he said.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., are among the policyholders settling with State Farm. Both had homes destroyed on the coast. Scruggs said neither has been paid yet, but he added, “I don’t expect any trouble with that.”

State Farm’s settlement with Scruggs’ clients and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood also resolves a lawsuit that Hood filed against the company. Hood agreed to drop State Farm from the lawsuit and end a criminal investigation of the company’s post-Katrina claims practices.

A “class-action” portion of the deal also called for State Farm to pay at least $50 million to thousands of policyholders who haven’t sued the company but can have their claims reopened, reviewed and possibly paid. However, a federal judge has refused to endorse this part of the settlement.

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. said in a Jan. 26 ruling that he does not have enough information to determine how many policyholders would benefit from that part of the deal or how much each can be paid.

Senter also said he is concerned about a lack of any guaranteed payments to policyholders whose homes were not completely destroyed. And he noted that cases already in litigation would be excluded from a procedure for resolving disputes through binding arbitration.

“We’re still trying to come up with a way to address the judge’s concerns,” Scruggs said. “I’m optimistic that we can better demonstrate the benefits of the class settlement to the judge, given the alternatives.”

State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said the settlements with Scruggs’ clients show that the company is “fulfilling our agreement” with the policyholders. That part of the settlement is separate, he added, from the class-action portion of the deal that Senter wouldn’t endorse.

In the meantime, Senter is soliciting ideas from other lawyers with Katrina lawsuits. In a letter Friday to 180 attorneys, Senter said he is looking for a broader approach to a settlement.

“While the proposed class action is currently limited to State Farm policyholders,” Senter wrote, “any procedure the court approves as an alternative to litigation would likely serve as a de facto model that would apply to similar claims against the other major insurers, Allstate and Nationwide.”

Senter said he is open to establishing an “arbitration alternative” to the binding arbitration procedure outlined in the proposed settlement, but he added, “Unless such a procedure offers substantial benefits for both parties, it will not succeed.”

The judge asked the attorneys to respond to his letter by Feb. 12. 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

LAGOS: For years, Andrew Young, the American civil rights leader, has been deeply involved in this country through the lobbying and consulting firm he heads, GoodWorks International. Its motto is: “We do well by doing good.”

But the question of what exactly GoodWorks is or is not doing here has turned Young and his firm into something of a lightning rod, as Nigerians prepare to elect Saturday a successor to this countrys president, Olusegun Obasanjo, whom Young has known for 30 years.

“We believe that the relationship between GoodWorks International and Nigeria is foisted on juicy financial benefits to the former,” said an editorial earlier this year in a newspaper here, This Day.

For his part, Young, a former congressman, UN ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, dismissed such comments as sniping by opponents of Obasanjos party, which is expected to win the election.

But there is also little question that Nigeria has been very good for GoodWorks; thanks to Youngs long ties to Obasanjo, his Atlanta-based firm has earned millions of dollars here over the years, through a network of business dealings that extend far beyond lobbying.

As business has gone increasingly global, many consulting firms based in the United States like GoodWorks have increased their operations abroad, taking on assignments in developing nations like Nigeria, where power and wealth is frequently concentrated in a few hands. And consulting experts say it is common for U.S. firms that lobby for foreign governments in Washington to also have business interests in those countries.

A look at the activities of GoodWorks in Nigeria, based on interviews and documents, provides a window into how embedded such lobbyists can become in developing economies.

Along with lobbying for Nigeria, for example, GoodWorks is paid to represent dozens of major companies like Chevron, General Electric and Motorola that seek big contracts from the Nigerian government.

In addition, executives of GoodWorks have stakes in Nigerian oil industry, the countrys main source of wealth. And several years ago, the firms chief executive, Carlton Masters, started an American company with close relatives of Obasanjo that bought an expensive Miami property with money invested by Masters, Florida records show.

It is not illegal for American lobbyists to simultaneously represent foreign countries and companies seeking business from them. And they are not barred from having business interests in countries they represent in Washington.

Young and Masters also said in recent interviews that they were scrupulous in avoiding conflicts between their governmental and corporate clients. They added that their clients that have won contracts in Nigeria have done so fairly, by outbidding competitors.

“We dont pay anyone under the table and we dont accept any kind of questionable payments or relationships,” Young said. “We dont work with people where there are questions of integrity involved.”

For Young, the involvement of GoodWorks in Nigeria is also one of the lesser-known chapters in a long, celebrated and at times controversial career.

Last year, for example, Young, who first became well known as a top aide to the Martin Luther King Jr., resigned as a consultant to Wal-Mart after he said that Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had “ripped off” black communities by “selling us stale bread and bad meat.” He subsequently apologized for the remarks.

GoodWorks has also generated controversy here. Two years ago, for instance, one local activist filed a complaint that, among other things, criticized Masters for his role in fund-raising for a $50 million, American-style presidential library named after Obasanjo that is being built in his hometown north of this chaotic and desperately poor city.

Also in 2005, the Nigerian leader was the host for Masterss wedding at the official presidential banquet hall, an event that drew outcries from Obasanjos critics.

Several activists in Nigeria said in recent interviews that they believed that Young had decided simply to profit here from his legacy rather than use it to help a country that remains beset by problems that include political corruption, crumbling infrastructure and failed school systems.

“Andrew Young has never been interested in these issues,” said Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer who is also president of the West African Bar Association. “He is just here making money.”

GoodWorkss dealings in Nigeria reflect Youngs relationship over three decades with Obasanjo. And like much else in Youngs life, it is a relationship filled with a mix of drama, ideals and opportunism.

The two men met in the late 1970s, when Obasanjo, then a general, first served as this countrys president as one in a long line of military figures who ruled Nigeria.