17 May 2010
Response to CEC Public Realm paper
This week Transform Scotland Responded to CEC draft consultation on its Public Realm Strategy.
Transform Scotland Chair, Paul Tetlaw said:
"We welcome Edinburgh Council's proposals for developers to contribute to public realm enhancements. We all benefit from an attractive and welcoming public realm, not least developers of commercial and residential property.
Many people visit Continental Europe and admire the vibrant town and city centres, high quality public realm and variety of small shops. With this in mind we believe that it is appropriate to call additionally for significant contributions from the major supermarket chains who have blanketed our towns and cities with out of town and edge of town developments. These developments have caused enormous damage to our traditional high streets and we can all see the impact. Rows of empty shops, deserted and unsafe shopping areas, general loss of local community amenities and large volumes of addtional car traffic on the roads are a direct consequence of the developments carried out by the major supermarket chains.
It seems bizarre that we are now spending many millions of pounds of public money in regeneration schemes. It is clearly time to call a complete halt to any further such developments and indeed to seek recompense for the dishonest claims made at the time these developments were approved."