RBS CONSULTS ON MAJOR DEVELOPMENT SITE

Royal Bank of Scotland has begun a consultation exercise concerning the future of its properties on Dundas Street, Fettes Row, Royal Crescent, Eyre Place, and Eyre Terrace. 

This round of discussions supersedes those held in 2011 and the subsequent application for planning permission in principle (Ref. 14/01177/PPP) for a mixed development of retail, commercial, business, hotel and/or residential and other uses reported here in April 2014.

However, some similar concerns and opportunities are likely to emerge.

The exercise follows the company’s announcement in the spring that it will withdraw staff from its Dundas Street/Fettes Row offices and relocate them to glamorous Gogarburn (see Issue 240).

The potential scale of development is therefore much larger than previously discussed.

On 24 September, an introductory event was held, which comparatively few people attended owing to ineffective publicity.

We are therefore happy to attach the exhibition boards and accompanying questionnaire at the foot of this page. We urge readers to add themselves to the mailing list to avoid missing similar events in future. (Note that the deadline for returned questionnaires is 2 October.)

Planning considerations

Key points which may interest locals include:

• 
  RBS envisages a ‘residential-led’ development here.
• The 2010 Edinburgh City Local Plan (ECLP) defines this ‘urban area’ as suitable in principle for ‘residential, commercial, institutional and other purposes’.
• Under the ECLP, the site of the former tenement on Eyre Place is designated as ‘open space’. Local plan policy Os1 offers protection for this, ‘unless certain criteria are satisfied’.
• Any development of the site must preserve or enhance the special character or appearance of the New Town Conservation Area.

Potential items for a local wish list

The boards currently express a great many fond hopes, noble aspirations, and calls for public input of ideas.

It should not be forgotten, though, that RBS seeks to make a profit. It will therefore be interesting to note how warmly they respond to any calls for additional affordable housing or New Town-style spacious shared gardens.

In completing the questionnaire, locals may wish to repeat their desire for a development that does not loom menacingly over the adjacent King George V Park. A stepped-back approach would be preferable.

RBS will almost certainly seek to build on the Eyre Place open space mentioned above. Locals might therefore ask to be compensated for this loss by the addition elsewhere of a similar sized or even larger open space contiguous to King George V Park.

Previous rounds of discussion have emphasised a need to make any development here ‘porous’, with welcoming through-routes for pedestrians. This would also be desirable in future iterations.

Given the site’s central location and excellent bus and bicycle links, perhaps strict limits should be placed on the amount of car parking.

What next?

A useful diagram of the proposed planning schedule is reproduced below, and appears also in the pdf EB9 below.

Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook

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@theSpurtle I'm hoping it's going to be a world class hotel. I need somewhere to stay when in the Dundas Street area.

 Rhona Stewart Cameron I worked in this office for a short time in the 80's and was told then they would be moving out soon because of bad subsidence. You could see the gaps between the floor and walls. I have always been surprised that they were still there after all those years.

‎John Macpherson Keith‎ to Broughton Spurtle