Tayside House, the Hilton hotel and the old Olympia leisure centre have now been gone for a decade and more, so that they already seem like a distant memory.
Much as many people wish to have seen these and other former features of the Tay Road Bridge landfall replaced by a new expanse of urban parkland and water, perhaps imaginatively reviving the old western docks infilled in the 1960s, the reality is that renewal of the Central Waterfront was always first and foremost a real estate project. The revenue generated by commercial development of the various sites is needed to offset the capital cost of the considerable infrastructure alterations; while, of course, boosting the city’s economy.
However, the reconfigured road layout has now been in place for some ten years, while nearly three decades have passed since the renewal of the waterfront was conceived; yet anyone arriving in Dundee off the road bridge is still being greeted by an extensive series of unsightly waste land plots enclosed by hoardings.
Most of the key figures in local government who were connected with the original Waterfront Masterplan have retired or moved on. Meanwhile, the slow pace of development is now in danger of becoming (to use that tired cliché) Dundee’s ‘elephant in the room’.
It is the view of Dundee Civic Trust that, if we are to avoid another decade and more of this scenario, an honest reappraisal and change of focus is required in respect of the Central Waterfront. We have produced a comprehensive discussion document, which has been shared with councillors and officials on Dundee City Council and which you may access here. We do not expect people to agree with everything we are suggesting, but it is to be hoped our words will stimulate debate and discussion.
