Laura Devlin’s articles about Dundee’s Waterfront have been fascinating – as were the online comments.

I believe there are points to further explore.

The first is that the original plan for the Waterfront wasn’t properly executed.

The V&A was supposed to give the impression it was “floating on the river” – so said V&A architect, Kengo Kuma.

Drawings in the design competition in 2010 show buildings (of several possible shapes at that time) 50 yards out in the river, reached by walkways.

Building it into the estuary would have given more space for attractions that could and should have been put at the Waterfront.

We can’t change its position now, so other ideas are needed.

‘Lifeblood in traffic form’

The obvious way to make the available space work better is to alter the bridge landfall so all traffic is initially taken east, with the inner ring road becoming an inner horseshoe.

The V&A hemmed in by a busy three-lane road isn’t working.

The three lanes in front of the Malmaison should be removed too.

Traffic wishing to go west, from the bridge and East Dock Street, should be taken up East Marketgait and round the horseshoe.

In an ideal world this could have been helped by taking one end of the horseshoe through where the Greenmarket car park now is, over the railway, to meet Riverside.

That’s another thing we can’t now change.

Traffic would have to carry on coming past the front of the railway station, then turn right.

Indisputably, lifeblood in traffic form still has to come into the city centre because (despite what active travel fantasists claim) cars are the main deliverer of customers – and that will remain true for the foreseeable future.

But even a proud car-brain like mine agrees roads don’t have to cut off the V&A front door.

‘Wasting a quarter of a billion’

There’s a trade-off – there have been problems when gigs at Slessor Gardens shut Thomson Avenue (Dock Street, in old money).

That’s because drivers expected the road to be open. It would be different once everyone adapted to a new layout.

Here’s an idea, instead of wasting a quarter of a billion quid on cycle paths very few will use, the travel budget could – more cost-efficiently – change the inner ring to a horseshoe.

Lastly, a cultural quarter needs places for culture.

The Waterfront would – ideally – have small performance venues, restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels, shops, art galleries, etc.

Though such things are difficult to attract and keep going, I fully concede.

But creating a visitor-attracting area (like Dublin’s Temple Bar) will never be possible at all if all the spaces are filled with offices.

It’s a mistake to make the Waterfront just a forest of glass boxes.

And the architecture so far has been woeful.

Who thought the bland rectangles on “site 6” (an aptly unimaginative name) were a good idea?

They are the modern equivalent of Skarne blocks.

No more offices, please.

There aren’t easy fixes for the Waterfront’s problems.

But what’s there at the moment, and what seems to be planned, isn’t working and never will.

Bold creativity, strong leadership, and flexible thinking are needed to change that.

I’m afraid I don’t see any of those things coming from Dundee’s current moribund council and council officers.

© The Courier