Some determined digging by local residents has begun to uncover the parties behind a sudden burst of activity on the patch of land between Broughton Road and the Claremonts (Breaking news, 11.3.14).
Land Registry documents seen by the Spurtle show that Haig Consortium Ltd (effectively a mortgage-lending firm) sold the land to a similar organisation called Link Lending Ltd in June 2007. They in turn sold it to Brands LL Funding Ltd in September 2008. Via another company Medwyn Property Company Ltd, it appears to have been acquired for £150,000 on 15 January 2014 by the British Virgin Islands-based Provincial Property Company (PPC).
In the last few days, PPC have also acquired a patch of land originally sold in 2002 for £1,000 by the then owner of 11a Claremont Crescent. PPC are applying to merge the plots together (see pink sliver in map below). This move looks like a bid to improve problematic access to the Broughton Road site, but it remains to be seen whether such a solution would eventually require planning consent for a change of use.
Meanwhile, uncertainty still surrounds who's working for whom. Contractors on the site claimed they could not remember who their employer was, but locals report the presence of vehicles liveried for a well-known Edinburgh-based engineering consultancy practice providing civil and structural engineering services. Those locals and officials who subsequently contacted that firm, however, were absolutely assured that it had no involvement in the site. Confusingly, another source then claimed that the company had been subcontracted by British Telecom.
Fortunately, City of Edinburgh Council has now confirmed that a formal investigation has begun. They may be able to make more sense of it. Those behind the investigation will contact neighbours soon with a Reference number (14/00151/EOPDEV) and contact details.
Meanwhile, Spurtle understands that a Council surveyor who visited the site late last week has concluded that the land there is stable enough for now. (Locals, though, still wonder whether it will remain stable once the roots of felled trees and cleared shrubs have rotted away.) Other officials have also now intimated to residents that the new track recently formed on the site is probably not enough to require planning permission in its own right.
Forestry Commission staff who visited the site last week concluded that the trees were not big enough (5 cubic metres) to have require special permission from them, although the contractors would have needed a licence to carry out felling work in general. It may be hard to find out whether they have such a licence if they cannot remember who they work for.
For the time being, details are emerging but a clear picture is hard to come by. We will report again when the fog has cleared.