The waterfront development at Granton Harbour this week received an architectural award double-nomination that has left a sour taste in the project designers’ mouths.

The “prestigious” Carbuncle Awards are the architectural equivalent of the Golden Rasberries, a run-down of the leading lights in bad design. The Granton Harbour project is in the running for both the headline “Plook on the Plinth” award for general crapness and for “Worst Planning Decision 2008.”

Sold as an alternative tourist spot to the picturesque New Town, Granton Harbour is to include a beach and promenade in addition to luxury flats and retail areas but has been described as a “dreary, market driven estate.”

It will face stiff competition from the favourite, Cumbernauld Town Centre, winner for the past two years.

Yet another step towards global domination

Coffee giant Starbucks has announced that it is to open yet another Edinburgh-based outlet on Nicholson Street, bringing its total number in the city to 14.

Starbucks’ current store locations include two outlets on George Street, two on Princes Street, one on both the Royal Mile and Lothian Road, and at Ocean Terminal, Fort Kinnaird and The Gyle shopping centres. The store at 140 Nicholson Street will give the corporation a strong footing in the fight against pesky independent coffee shops in Edinburgh's Southside.

A much needed waste of money

Edinburgh city councillors last week announced a major capital injection of £100k to boost productivity in its waste disposal department.

Hot on the heels of the announcement in last fortnight's edition of The Journal that waste collections will “inevitably” become fortnightly, Edinburgh’s binmen are to be sent on special team-building exercises throughout the year - occupying the time they have available thanks to scheduling changes.

Opposition leaders have branded the expense an “outrageous waste of public money.”