City of Edinburgh Council Planning officials have approved the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) pre-application notification of plans to redevelop 7, 11 and 13 Eyre Terrace.
RBS proposes a mixed-use development that 'could include' residential, retail, food, drink, office, care home and hotel uses, open space and ancillary associated works (Ref. 11/03614/PAN; 11/0375/FUL).
One has to wonder whether a pre-application notification of such mind-numbing vagueness is worth having in the first place. It appears to amount to little more than an 'Ooh, you know, something super ... nothing to get all antsy about, honest'.
Included in the development is the empty plot of land next to King George V Park which various groups have approached RBS to use over the years without success. Nos 11 and 13 and their outbuildings are the unlovely buildings on the left of an unlovely street almost opposite the south end of Eyre Crescent. It is most notable for a not altogether convincing mural lion (Nos 3–5) which once advertised a laundry here (Issue 157). The unconvincing lion would be unaffected.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful public relations coup if the Royal Bank of Scotland (responsible for so much recent financial mayhem and misery worldwide), were to choose, in a small act of public reparation, to gift their Eyre Terrace properties to the city? Perhaps these premises and the adjacent car park below Royal Crescent could be donated for use as green spaces extending King George V Park?
Spurtle will write an optimistic letter appealing to RBS bosses' better natures, and publish their heart-warming responses in due course.
Update: For more on this story, see Breaking news (12.1.12) and Issue 202 (January 2012).
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Permission has been granted for demolition of the former Gateway Theatre at 40–4 Elm Row (Ref. 11/02695/CON; Breaking news, 23.8.11).