UNESCO yesterday criticised Edinburgh council's handling of the Caltongate development and said the demolition of two listed buildings could have been avoided, The Scotsman can reveal.
Its European heritage chief, Dr Mechtild Rössler, condemned the council for allowing the London developer Mountgrange to draw up the initial blueprint for the huge Old Town site, by Waverley Station.
Dr Rössler said the move to allow a deve
loper to lead the "masterplanning", instead of the local authority, was "highly unusual" in a World Heritage site and was probably responsible for the scheme attracting so much opposition.
She said it was "puzzling" the council had decided on that approach with Mountgrange, a developer to which it had agreed to sell several parcels of land, when it had not done so over the proposed redevelopment of the nearby St James Centre.
Dr Rössler, who spent three days in the capital last week, said the council could have avoided the huge "tensions" between the developer, the business community and heritage bodies by leading the whole development process and avoiding demolitions.
"There were a number of issues that concerned us about the Caltongate development. We do consider that listed buildings should only be demolished as a last resort and generally should not happen in a World Heritage site. It's very important to us that stakeholders are listened to and their views are not overrun.
"It's very puzzling that the council did not lead the original masterplanning process. Had this happened, we believe many of the tensions over Caltongate could have been avoided and the proposed development would have looked a lot different. These buildings could've been saved."
Mountgrange has promised about 2,000 jobs. The scheme involves the creation of a hotel and conference centre, 200 homes, a public square, office blocks and a new arts quarter. But it involves demolition of two listed buildings, as well as the removal of all but the façade of a 1930s tenement block on the Canongate.
Unesco has also told The Scotsman that its report into the capital's World Heritage site will spell out serious concerns about the impact on Edinburgh's skyline of the Haymarket development, which was called in by the Scottish Government last week.
Jim Lowrie, Edinburgh city council's planning leader, admitted the local authority could be left in a "tricky position" if the council's handling of Mountgrange was strongly criticised and asked for a response.
However, Mountgrange has launched an attack on Unesco, the world heritage body, branding it an "irrelevance" and saying it is not interested in its views on the £300 million development.
The firm said it has no intention of postponing the start of work until after next summer's World Heritage summit, in Seville, discusses Edinburgh.
A spokesman Mark Cummings said a "dangerous precedent" would be set if a major developer had to wait until Unesco had delivered its judgment, and insisted that Mountgrange had no intention of changing its scheme, even if key criticisms were made by Unesco.
