If green is good, the five-year-old Slateford Green housing development in the Gorgie district of Edinburgh is a paragon of virtue. The 120 super-insulated flats contribute to cutting global CO_2 emissions by taking heating and hot water from a communal system. The homes are oriented for maximum solar gain and are set around a pond that filters surface water run-off. And, boldest of all, cars are banned at Slateford Green, and residents and their visitors forced to park elsewhere. In fact, Slateford Green is so proud to be green it wears the colour on its sleeve - in vivid bands of green rendering on its facade. Shame then, that a development sporting the green strip of Hibs' football team is actually located in archrival Hearts territory. "The colour was a bit of a hot potato when the development first went up," concedes Fergus Allan, project co-ordinator at developer Dunedin Canmore Housing Association. "But now people think of it as a landmark rather than taking offence."
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