On being a Board member...

Last night was the last meeting of the North Edinburgh & Leith LDC. It was memorable for one thing namely, all the landowners in Edinburgh's waterfront were present to answer questions from the public. It was, I hope, a useful dry run for the new waterfront communities partnership which is due to be established in the next month - bringing local communities and landowners together in one room on a regular basis to discuss the new developments. The questions were calm yet searching and certainly provoked a great deal of interest - I was disappointed that nobody from the North Edinburgh community councils were there (except DMcD who had a very particular question to ask) since there was a lot of information they might have found helpful. I'm hoping the community partnership will be up and running shortly and that it might shed more light for the community on how property development works. The one thing I have learned on the Waterfront Board is that private development is a reactive, risky process, very much at the mercy of the market. The contrast between that and the markedly planned, more certain processes of major public agencies like the Council or say, the Health Board, is very sharp. It's been an interesting and occasionally difficult, journey for me: trying to marry the transparency of the public sector to the legal obligations and discipline of shareholder accountability. Both Billy (F) and I being board members has meant we have been able to bring the community agenda to the table. And being on the WEL table has meant it has forced it on to both other tables too. But now we have finished the preparation stages and there are real houses and jobs, real parks and public places it is, I think, increasingly important for improved openness by all 3 landowners.

Budget day tomorrow and Granton will be pleased, I think. Some very good pieces of news for the local area - but more of that later.