The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) yesterday outlined the planning context and mixed-use potential for its cleared land on Eyre Place and vacant buildings at 7, 11–13 Eyre Terrace (see Breaking news 21.11.11).
At a pre-planning application notification exhibition in Stockbridge Library, RBS's agents Michael Laird Architects had staff on hand to explain information panels and answer questions.
The proposals at this stage are purposely vague, intended to provoke thought and encourage opinion among locals before more developed plans are presented in response at a second PAN presentation in 'late February'.
You can view the plans, and comment on them, when the following website goes live on 13 January: www.eyreplace.co.uk. Comments should be made by 20 January.
Be aware: in commenting at this stage, you will be talking exclusively to the architects, NOT to the Council planning authority.
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The area in question measures 0.836ha. It is just outside the Edinburgh World Heritage Site but within the New Town Conservation Area.
- [img_assist|nid=2588|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=163]The cleared land on Eyre Place adjoins King George V Park. It has already been identified by the Council as an 'open space' and so future use will be judged using Local Plan policy OS1 which seeks to protect such spaces unless particular criteria are satisfied. As Spurtle understands it, in lay terms, the open space would have to be either retained, or replaced nearby with an equal area of similar space, or substituted by a smaller but improved open space.
- [img_assist|nid=2590|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=141]No. 7 is a small, vacant property to the rear of the Eyre Terrace tenements. Andrew PK Wright (Heritage Consultants), appointed by RBS, recently identified it as early 20th-century stabling and carter's accommodation designed by the renowned architect Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) in the arts-and-crafts style with his characteristic butter-press patterns in the wall at knee level. (See also Facebook.) As discussions with Historic Scotland now progress about its possible listing, No. 7 is currently excluded from the development proposal. Locals will need to monitor this aspect carefully.
- [img_assist|nid=2591|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]Nos 11 and 13 Eyre Terrace are both single-storey buildings, the first a vacant dwelling, the second a vacant office. Both have single-storey office accommodation to the rear. Andrew PK Wright find no architectural merits in Nos 11–13, describing them as 'out of scale with the surrounding structure and, overall ... considered to have a negative effect on the character and appearance of the conservation area'. No-one seems to have viewed the scene through the other end of the telescope: the overbearing surrounding structure – including the RBS building – is equally out of scale with the pre-existing Nos 11–13.
So far, RBS has applied for permission to demolish Nos 11–13, which it considers potentially dangerous owing to their state of disrepair. It will do so if granted a Conservation Area Consent (Ref. 11/03575/CAC).
[Spurtle eavesdropped one veteran local resident asserting to a Michael Laird representative that if the buildings are derelict, it is only because RBS has knowingly allowed them to deteriorate. This prompted a slight gulp, a pause, then a polite reiteration that serious structural problems have been found.]
Temporary landscaping (whoopee-do – grass, how lovely!) would follow demolition (Ref. 11/0375/FUL). When RBS last tried something similar in June 2010 (Ref. 10/00769/CON) its application was refused on the grounds that it did not comply with the Edinburgh City Local Plan and did not preserve or enhance the character of the New Town Conservation Area. The replacement development (hardstanding and a temporary fence) was not considered of sufficient merit to justify demolition.
Crucial to any eventual proposal will be the replacement of a substantial paper store to the east of No. 13, known as the Scotland Building. Confusingly, this modern structure does not yet appear in any planning applications. Watch this space.
[img_assist|nid=2592|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=159]RBS will apply soon for Planning Permission in Principle for uses which might include: residential, retail, food and drink, office, care home, hotel, and associated ancillary. Spurtle is disappointed that historically appropriate fairground, theme park, ice rink and football stadium uses are not envisaged.
Purely imaginative mock-ups were presented to show alternative massings and organisations of a development. These included:
- 3–6 storey structures on the current open space fronting Eyre Place (but modern ceilings are lower than 19th-century ones, so such a building would mostly match the height of its tenemental neighbours above the restaurants)
- Possible private courtyards with access routes 'improving permeability' into King George V Park
- Michael Laird representatives seemed, to this observer, remarkably keen to stress the desirability of windows overlooking King George V Park as a means of informally supervising activity there. This seemed odd. We remember would-be developers at Heriothill being inconvenienced by the need to preserve the privacy of an adjacent nursery ... can similar concerns have been at play here?
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[img_assist|nid=2589|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]Spurtle is not, in principle, opposed to redevelopment of this area. We are, however, very wary of Greeks bearing gifts and even more wary of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Call us cynical, but we suspect RBS is probably more interested in making money out of this scheme than preserving architectural integrity or building a sustainable community good for Broughton.
As PAN exhibitions go, this was among the most informative we have attended. Michael Laird staff were charming and remarkably frank. The event was, though, informative and transparent only about so much pie in the sky.
We recommend locals act in good faith, seize the 6-hour exhibition window and 7-day response period to send in their opinions. RBS and its advisers will then painstakingly consider suggestions before originating a less airy-fairy proposal roughly 6 weeks later.
Next, they will ask again for public opinions at a second PAN exhibition.
After that they will submit the first really important, detailed planning application to the Council without any legal obligation whatsoever to accommodate previously expressed public aspirations. That will be the point at which concerned locals must really pay attention and, if necessary, solicit the help of political representatives to make their voices heard.
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Reaction on Facebook
Fergus Smith Don't worry, I'm sure the council will look after our interests and make sure everything's just tickety boo. Or perhaps not ...
Neale Gilhooley My first reaction to a site re-development by RBS was alarm, but on reading the document (yes it is a bit vague at this stage) I thought what a wonderful opportunity to create something with views out over the park as long as it does not over shadow the park or the nearby houses.
