On the other side of Leith Street from the Calton Hill lies the St James Square Comprehensive Development Area, where construction is now in full swing. It is nine years since this area was designated and throughout that period the gross overloading proposed for the site has caused grave anxiety. The sheer bulk of the resultant development will soon be all too apparent, and it will be recalled that the traffic burden which it will place on surrounding roads was the reason for the first publication of proposals for an Inner Ring Road (including the Eastern Link). Last years Report of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland summarises their attempts to have the scale of redevelopment reduced. Their lack of success is due largely to the Scottish Office, who have persisted in demanding central sites for housing their activities, in flat contradiction to their own policies for dispersing office development.

The Cockburn Association 1970