BIJOU OFFICE BLOCKED ... FOR NOW

Submitted by Editor on Tue, 10/02/2015 - 14:25

An application to convert the controversial ‘garage’ on East Scotland Street Lane to a ‘studio office’ (Ref. 15/000147/FUL; see Issue 237) seems to have stumbled at the umpteenth fence.

City of Edinburgh Planning officials laconically reported as follows:

The application represents a repeat application where the same description of development is stated and for which the local planning authority refused planning permission on 11 June 2014. This was subsequently tested at appeal and the refusal was upheld on 20 August 2014. The development plan has not changed since consent was refused and there are no new considerations which apply.
The local planning authority therefore declines to determine this application under Section 39(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

It all sounds rather like a CEC version of Forrest Gump's 'An' thayat's awl I gotta say abayat thyat'. Readers will probably have other favourite Gump quotes they find relevant to the case.

Notwithstanding the finality of CEC's tone, given the time, effort, money and strong emotions invested in this development oddity, it is hard to imagine that the garage’s owner will be content to let the property – with its remaining kitchen/shower and toilet arrangements – remain a mere ‘domestic lock-up’ for pampered Peugeots.

We look forward to more lof his imaginative applications in the months to come.

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An application to knock down the property currently occupied by Earthy at 1 Canonmills Bridge and build in its place a ground-floor retail space, six flats above and three townhouses to the rear was turned down against officals’ advice on 4 February (Ref. 14/02786/FUL).

An extraordinary 250+ letters of objection, including one from Stockbridge and Inverleith Community Council, had earlier been submitted concerning design, scale, form, oversupply of retail development, and increased traffic; all of which officials considered material (i.e. relevant) but unproved.

Councillors nevertheless decided to go their own way and turn down the proposal on the grounds that it is:

… contrary to policies Env 6 Conservation Areas - Development and Des 3 Development Design of the Edinburgh City Local Plan and the Council's Edinburgh Design Guidance as the proposed development by reason of its scale, form and design is detrimental to the character and appearance of the Inverleith Conservation Area.

Cue widespread public jubilation on social media.

Until people belatedly realised that an earlier, very similar application for two restaurants, six flats and three townhouses had already been granted planning permission two years earlier (Ref. 09/00830/FUL; see Breaking news, 15.5.13). It is that earlier successful proposal which appears in the artist's impressions here.

Cue widespread public disappointment and disenchantment on social media.

Under that original scheme, which could now end up being built, there is no retail space envisaged in which an operation like Earthy could operate. This will disappoint many of those for whom Earthy's continued presence here was their principal, if unexpressed, reason for writing in to object.

So, why did the developer decide to make comparatively minor changes to an existing, consented scheme (restaurants to retail, slight alterations to windows)?

We’re not sure. But some claim that if the application had been successful it might have had the subsidiary effect of shifting forward the five-year time-window in which development had to begin. Perhaps the resale value of the property, runs this logic, would have been significantly higher in 2020 than in 2018.

Why did councillors on the Development Sub-committee, knowing as they surely did, that this scheme was not substantially different to that which had been consented earlier, go to such lengths to reject it?

We don’t know. But we hear rumours that they may have secretly feared the arrival of yet another Tesco or Sainsbury or Waitrose local store – something with which no Earthy-scale operation could compete for the developer's affections.

We have another, more plausible suggestion. Following 250+ letters of objection, canny politicians simply have to be seen to be doing something. Anything.

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Date for your diary: The Scottish Historic Buildings Trust invites you to an opening evening in the Glasite Meeting House on Barony Street to discuss the building's past, present and future. It's on THURSDAY 12 February, from 5.30–8.00pm. Refreshments. Your ideas warmly invited.

[Image top-right: Creative Commons, Flikr.]

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Paul ‏@fountainbridge