Peter Wilson’s Wrap

Not that Aberdeenshire’s finest are alone amongst the modern breed of local politicians and apparatchiks in being economic with the actualite´ – no, Scotland’s capital has more than its fair share of laughable rogues who seem determined to take council taxpayers for a ride on the as-yet-unbuilt-and unlikely-ever-to-be-completed tram system. You’ll be relieved to know that I’m not going to write about Edinburgh’s current resemblance to Beirut because the city fathers – in a bid to distract us all from the no-go zones, potholes, craters, burst sandbags and other evidence of the interminable war between the German contractors and TIE, the Council’s wholly-owned but mightily inexperienced expeditionary force – have announced a flurry of initiatives over the past few weeks intended, no doubt, to keep up the spirits of the citizens in these dark and difficult times.

Number one on the list has to be the unashamed brio of the authority in seeking the support of the World Monuments Fund in its attempts to prevent further deterioration of the capital’s graveyards, places “that evoke such significant memories of the history and importance” of the city. The Fund has responded by adding five city centre cemeteries to its 100-strong register of internationally “at risk” monuments because they “form a collection of graveyards that provide a window on the history culture and society of Scotland from the early 17th to the late 19th century.” The Council, of course, is blaming its inability to carry out its legal obligation to maintain the green spaces in the burial grounds on the families supposedly responsible for the tombs, some of which are 300-400 years old.

The upshot of all this is that the Council hopes to form the “Historic Graveyards Trust”, in partnership with one it already has a half share in – the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust – in order to raise money to co-ordinate the upkeep of the grounds. Aside from the abrogation of legal responsibility implied here and the unlikely chance of sufficient funds being raised in the way suggested, one can only savour the piquancy of the Council’s highlighting of problems of vandalism and overturned headstones. Yes, this is the very same Council whose functionaries – in the guise of Health and Safety – has spent the past five years or so toppling over cemetery headstones lest they accidentally fall on the city’s feral mites.

But the announcements just don’t stop there, for the good men and true in the Council’s Market Street headquarters (which, for some reason unbeknown to the Wrap, its inmates insist on referring to as ‘Guantanamo’) – have come up with another stoater, an ‘Emerald Necklace’ no less that is intended to link the city’s parks and gardens. Naturally the idea is not original – our bold boys and girls have based their “vision” on a similar scheme instituted in Boston, Massachusetts as recently as the 19th century, and these green corridors will not only boast “new trees, plants and floral displays” but “plants and floral display boxes will be introduced in the Royal Mile, George IV Bridge, George Street and Princes Street.” Glory be – municipal flower displays are about to make a comeback (a city in bloom rather than boom), providing of course that the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust (yes, them again) manages to co-ordinate fundraising efforts to kick-start the first of these green corridors.

And third on the list of capital projects that seem to involve the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust in partnership with the city fathers is the restoration of St Bernard’s Well on the banks of the Water of Leith. Now it has to be said that a number city monuments (the Nelson and the Burns monuments on Calton Hill spring to mind) have recently been restored by this duopoly but, surprise-surprise, this latest one is subject to the necessary £100k being secured, again from sources unknown.

Now I don’t wish to cast aspersions on the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust’s fundraising abilities but you do have to be concerned that each of the three projects I’ve listed is a direct municipal responsibility that the Council seems eager to devolve as far as it possibly can in order that the money required doesn’t come from its coffers. And no wonder – this week the city’s finance leader, Councillor Phil Wheeler announced that the capital was £247m in the red even before we take into account the much-anticipated colossal over-run on its Panama tram adventure. On one front at least, the city fathers have displayed some uncharacteristic candour – the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens, a dysfunctional, crumbling eyesore and the subject of replacement proposals for the best part of 20 years will remain in its current condition and in prime view of visitors and tourists for the foreseeable future. Whoever said it takes 200 years to do anything in Edinburgh clearly hadn’t banked on the present difficult economic climate being blamed for further delay.