A tolerable administration of justice

An instant response to my blog of the other day. The Scottish Government has approved the proposals from Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University) for the sympathetic renovation of Panmure House, just off old Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile, where Adam Smith lived from 1778 up to his death in 1790.

The planning authorities have at last given the go ahead, despite objections from Historic Scotland – a statutory publicly-funded body which forced a public enquiry on the plans. But it should come as no surprise that current legal requirements for wheelchair access, fire exists, public and disabled toilets and all the rest required some modification to the old building. Since the guts had been ripped out of it already by its previous public-sector owners, that would be no great loss; but not only have the Business School accommodated all these requirements sympathetically, they are also going to spend a large amount on restoring the whole house to its eighteenth century glory.

I'm really fed up with publicly funded bodies and public officials taking so long over this kind of thing. And the fact that different public bodies come up with competing rules and regulations that land us in the sort of three-year hiatus that Panmure House has been sunk in. Without a purpose, Panmure House would be an unloved, decaying hulk.

The Business School have found a purpose – facilities for their students plus a public space for events and concerts – which even the meanest intelligence should see as better than letting it decay. Fortunately, common sense has triumphed over bureaucracy, and Adam Smith's old home will be revived again.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAdamSmithInstituteBlog/~3/h7z-pMChXm0/

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