A planning application to convert 7–8 Baxter’s Place from a social club to five residential apartments has been withdrawn. (Ref. 14/03707/LBC; Breaking news, 23.9.14).
Spurtle would have welcomed regeneration of what seems an underused resource close to the city centre and a return to its original domestic purpose. The Cockburn Association (CA) also viewed the proposal as ‘an overall positive’, but crucially objected on the grounds that the amended floor construction was not right for such a Category A-listed building.
It was keen to retain the original ‘vertical circulation’ of the Georgian building by retaining both staircases.
To this end, it cited Council policy that: ‘There will be a particular requirement not to sub-divide whether horizontally or vertically entrance/stair halls’.
The CA argued that the original room layout should be retained as far as possible to achieve a quality restoration of this ‘rare and valuable building’. Good conservation practice and methodology, it said, allow the creation of new dwellings in historic buildings whilst respecting the original floor layouts, building fabric and detailing.
It is not clear whether the CA’s objection was the determining factor in the application being withdrawn, but it seems likely to have had a significant bearing.
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An application to erect six, free-standing, double-sided, LCD advertising panels on George Street has been quietly dropped, at least for now (Ref. 14/03842/ADV).
The panels would have measured 2958mm high by 1338mm wide by 245mm deep with a visible screen area of 1.96 sq.m and had the technical capacity to operate 24 hours a day.
JCD sought consent for a period of 10 years, but then withdrew the application without explanation. This decision was rubber-stamped by Planning on 18 December.
Now, before you start gnashing your teeth at the cheek of a private company rocking up in the capital and potentially defacing our cherished Georgian streetscape with money-making eyesores, consider this ...
The application was first made in September 2014, after discussion with a named City of Edinburgh Council officer the previous month. Unfortunately, the section of the application form reserved for specifying what that officer's advice comprised has not been filled in. However, one may guess that CEC’s general response was positive, particularly given the title JCD gave the project shortly afterwards: ‘The City of Edinburgh Council City Shelter Advertising Scheme’.
Strictly speaking, JCDecaux UK Ltd may have submitted the application and then withdrawn it again at its own request, but most people will assume CEC’s fingerprints are all over it. Spurtle is disappointed (but not surprised) that the scheme was ever even considered at this location. Whether they were intended as stand-alone units, or – as some have suggested – flashy components of glorified bus stops, they would have detracted from the main attraction: George Street itself.
In the event of the George Street experiment becoming a permanent fixture, Edinburgh citizens will have to monitor the further commercialisation of their civic space here very carefully indeed.
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The reason given was:
The proposed advertisement is contrary to the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (Scotland) Regulations 1984 (as amended) Part II reg. 4(2) (a) in respect of amenity as the proposed display will introduce an incongruous intrusion to the streetscape that will be greater due to the proposed illumination.
The immediate area, noted the determination, has 'a domestic appearance and character owing to the historic built environment'.
Could similar considerations have belatedly led JCD to drop its George Street plan?
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
[Monolith image: Creative Commons licence courtesy of Galactic Contact.]
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@theSpurtle Not bus shelters - interesting, actually, that they didn't even feel need to pretend it is something useful for users of street
New Town Flâneur @NewTownFlaneur
@theSpurtle The non-arrival of the monoliths on George St. is regrettable. The film version could have been titled 2015: Abased Odd City.