Spurtle was in contact yesterday with Kingsford Estates, the developer behind proposals for 154 McDonald Road. We invited them to respond to our press coverage, and to put their side of the argument regarding how conversion of the former high-school premises may affect Broughton Primary School next door.
This morning, we received the following email from Alex Watts, director at Kingsford. We reproduce it, with very minor changes (which we are happy to disclose to anyone who’s interested), below.
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Dear Spurtle
I actually thought your first article [Breaking news, 24.6.13] and (fame at last) the front page coverage [Issue 220] were accurate and fair.
On your recent update [Breaking news, 2.7.13] – thought it may be worth making a couple of points for accuracy/balance/info.
Clearly we had nothing to do with the Council decision to sell the high school so I can’t really comment on the clearly sensitive politics of that but I do entirely sympathise with parents and the Council looking for a solution to growing classroom sizes.Parent Council
We met some of the parents led by Gareth Overton ahead of their main meeting – for them to ask questions – meet me – Paul Scott our planning consultant and one of our architects so they could brief the main meeting as a whole afterwards (which we didn't attend so not sure what was said or not).
I think the initial feedback we got from the Parent Council team was that some parents thought that if they resisted the planning application that could block the sale and maybe the Council would reconsider using the school. We explained that Kingsford can buy it without planning: i.e. objecting to the the current planning application wouldn't necessarily help with the classroom issue. Other than that particular communication, we felt the discussion was positive – focusing on the children's safety and welfare during any potential development and discussion on potentially reduced impacts of residential use vs current office use. Lots of the safety points have been heavily covered in the legal process, but ones clearly we are keen to work very closely with the School, Council and Parents to ensure are to the highest standards.
Timing of planning submission
Reading, your [most recent] article it highlights the not ideal timing: ‘Make of these timings what you will.’ Fair call! Some kind of devious scheming on timing would be a great newsworthy conspiracy theory! The reality, boringly perhaps (sorry), is that it wasn't planned like that and and to be honest we'd much rather rather it hadn't fallen like that.
This project has taken a long time since first marketed 2 years ago – the legal process took a very long time, but for good reason and in a positive way because of both sides trying best to ensure playground and school would be protected during any re-development – and agreement by Kingsford for example to build a new school garden for the school as a condition. The legal missive once finally agreed had certain timescales which needed to be adhered to, and that dictated timing of the planning submission.
Community engagement
We are keen to ensure everyone has an opportunity to understand what we are trying to achieve and ask questions and make comments. Hence setting up the drop-in afternoon at the Library.* Although not a requirement, given lousy timing, we felt that may help. We have also informed Ian Mowat at the Community Council so they can come and have a look.
If someone has any particular concern on the proposed application and they cannot make the drop-in, we're very happy to meet them separately and have a chat and answer any questions if we can – and happy for you to let your readers know that we're on 14 Albany St and the office contact number is 0131 557 6722. Or come seek us out for a pint in the Magnum!
'Urban Key'
The new housing concept Kingsford is proposing here – ‘Urban Key’ – is an exciting and innovative way of providing much needed on market affordable 1st time buyer/ key worker housing without the requirement for government (i.e taxpayer) support. I think it would be a great innovation for the area and would put Edinburgh ahead of the game in finding positive solutions to city centre affordability issues. We'd like the community to understand the objectives and hopefully get behind and contribute to it as a good way to preserve a fantastic local building.
Kind regards
Alex Watts
(Director, www.kingsfordestates.co.uk)
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* In response to the recent press coverage regarding the development of 154 McDonald Road (Broughton Higher Grade School) into 73 studio flats , Kingsford has arranged a drop-in event for anyone who may have questions regarding this development. This will be held at the McDonald Road Library (Nelson Hall) on 8 July between 4pm and 7.30pm.
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