Philip McDowell attended a meeting of the Development Management Sub-Committee at City Chambers on 24th May 2023, and was able to speak. Here is what he said:
As a member of the Southside Community Council, I am supposed to be representative of the views of the residents of the area. You will have seen from the SCC's submissions on this application, that we are broadly supportive of the building of family housing in the area, and so we do support the aim of using this site to create badly needed homes.
However, there are some aspects of the plans which we think need to change, and would hope that the developer will be able to further modify the plans.
The housing most needed in the area is of the affordable type, so we are pleased to see that there is a good proportion of affordable housing included in these plans, but there are problems with the mix of dwelling sizes, and we do not think the current arrangement is tenure blind as is the stated aim of the developers. We are, though, amateurs in this, and see that Mr Sedgwick of Housing and Homelessness is working on this aspect, so we hope you will take into account what he has to say.
Many of the residents of neighbouring streets have expressed concerns about the impact the mass of the new residential blocks will have on the area. They are too big and too dark. We realise the colour scheme has been chosen to blend with the original office blocks, but we feel that the dark colour makes for an oppressive feel, and maybe if they were lighter in colour, perhaps to match the local sandstone used in the older buildings round about, they would not seem so overpowering. Even so the heights of the residential blocks do seem to be too high, particularly on the north east part of the site, where the ground falls away, and neighbouring houses are at a much lower level.
Many of the local objectors have expressed concern about the impact of all these new homes on local facilities such as education and health. Whereas the Communities and Families response looks at the likely impact on local schools, I see no report from the local Health Board, and wonder what the impact will be on local GP services. Has this been assessed, and are there plans for more GP provision, and has the question of funding it been addressed? I note that there is a report from the Airport - I would have thought a report from the Health Board would be more relevant.
Trees are another aspect of the plans where we have concerns. We note that the development involves the felling of quite a few trees which are described as 'Class B', in other words good trees with nothing wrong with them that under other circumstances would remain and continue making the contribution to the area that mature trees do, capturing carbon, reducing pollution, and making a pleasant visual amenity to the local area, shielding us from views of less attractive things. There is the intention to plant new trees, so in the fullness of time we should have a restored treescape, but in the meantime (50 years or so?) we suffer from the loss of those good trees. It is to be hoped that, if the trees really have to go, the timber will be put to good use, sold to furniture makers and other workers in wood. (Not just burnt or chipped). I am particularly concerned about the view along Holyrood Park Road. I have not seen any visualisation showing what it will look like, but I suspect the new blocks A, B and C, which are quite close to the road will dominate the view. If it were possible to retain the trees that currently stand there it would make a big difference to the way the new development is perceived.
Cllr Tim Jones (Conservative, Portobello / Craigmillar) asked what was the basis for the statement that “The housing most needed in the area is of the affordable type”. PM had no suitable reply, but has since found a report (Social Housing Waiting Lists) which would have been very useful.
The City Council's Development Management Sub-Committee decided to approve this application, more or less ignoring our submissions.
You can watch the committee proceeding on the webcast here:https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/774541
Why were we so ill prepared for this? Why did we discover so late that we could speak at the meeting?