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COURIER OPINION: Eden Project can be a new green beginning for Dundee and tourism

The £130 million project was greenlit by councillors this week.

CGI image of the Eden Project Dundee. Image: The Eden Project
CGI image of the Eden Project Dundee. Image: The Eden Project

Eden is a word synonymous with new beginnings, creation and lush bountiful pastures of green space.

With planning permission now secured for the long-awaited Eden Project in Dundee, it is hoped the £130 million venture can be a catalyst for those changes in the City of Discovery.

Because make no mistake, this is an exciting and ambitious project which can be game changing for the city – as long as it is managed correctly.

The Cornwall site has injected around £2 billion into their local economy over the last 20 years and helped put the English peninsula firmly on the tourist map.

If Dundee, one day, benefits from a similar injection of cash into our coffers then the project will have been a roaring success.

Dundee workers will see the benefits

But let’s face it, £2bn over the next 20 years is a huge number and a far away goal.

First the project finance has to be fully secured from public and private sources and the build progressed.

A planning application will be submitted this year. Image: Eden Project

But, from what we are told, the vast majority of that £130 million is going to be put straight into the Dundee economy.

Contracts have been ringfenced to ensure they go to local businesses and benefit our workforce.

There will be job creation, both short and long term, in building the attraction and then staffing and maintaining it in the years ahead.

The Eden Project should be nothing but a massive boost and a huge positive for the city and its residents.

With the right finessing of infrastructure around it, Eden can show that Dundee is leading the way on visionary projects, not just in Scotland, but throughout the UK.

Focal point of new tourist trail

The progressing of that infrastructure is an important part of the puzzle however, it cannot be ignored or allowed to slide into an afterthought.

City planners must ensure that we connect the Eden Project with the rest of our city.

There have been questions around the V&A and its struggles to cement itself as a part of Dundee.

V&A in Dundee

The Eden Project should be seen as an opportunity to galvanise the attractions along the waterfront and create a tourist promenade fit for the calibre of projects it serves.

From Discovery Point, past the V&A, onto the HMS Unicorn and its possible new home as the centre piece of a Dundee Maritime Heritage Centre, until finally we reach the Eden Project.

With the added bonus of a famous ice-cream parlour and views of the Tay, it has the potential to be a truly magnificent trail – if fashioned with that large scale thinking in mind.

One of the first objectives must be approving the the plans for a pedestrian bridge across East Dock Street and the east coast mainline railway to link the attractions.

Looking to a greener future

The Eden Project will be built at the former gas works on East Dock Street.

It could be said that the site as it is now – post industrial, dirty and down at heel – is a reminder of where the city was at when it began its journey to become the City of Discovery in the late 1980s.

The plans for its future are a reminder of how far the city has come in the intervening years.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Eden Project Dundee. Image: The Eden Project

This venture can be the focal point of the next stage in this city’s long and successful history.

It can create jobs and wealth for the people and help deliver on our climate goals, protecting the environment for future generations with its carbon positive outlook.

In short, it can be our Eden.

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