We have been through the latest proposals for Craighouse, “Scheme 3” it is called, in quite a lot of detail and can now bring you a summary and some images.

How does Scheme 3 differ to Scheme 2? Remember, schemes 1 and 2 received more objections than any in Edinburgh planning history. Scheme 2 received so many objections that the planners have been unable to count them fully. But yet again, we still have more new-build than old.

• There is just one of the massive blocks of flats removed from the scheme 2 plans.
• There are still 6 remaining development sites with the new-build still totaling more square footage than the existing listed buildings.
• They have removed most of the underground car-parking.
• As a result of less underground car-parking, there are now 12 surface car-parks.
• They still plan to finish and sell off the massive buildings nearer the entrance to the site, before going on to the larger listed buildings deeper inside the site.
• The roads have been narrowed, letting them say they’re using less green space, but making it very hard for large vehicles to move about the site. Anything larger than a car will have to do some complicated turning manouvres in the car-parks.
• Their own roads audit questions the safety of the narrow roads on steep hills, with some visibility problems and children playing on the site.
• They show how a rubbish lorry can just about squeeze through the new narrow roads, but how would construction vehicles finish off the project after they’ve sold the flats at the entrance to the site?
• Yet again, they have produced very few images that really show what their buildings will look like. The images they have produced are from strange angles, obscured by trees, and at least one doesn’t totally match the plans. And they confuse east/west at least once. So, it’s still really hard to work out. But we’ve done a *lot* of work to produce some images based on their plans.
• They still plan to do 3 of the new-build blocks, including the 2 biggest (Clouston and Burton) before they are required to touch any of the listed buildings.
• The whole thing is still justified by figures that they claim (as they have been claiming for years) have been checked by the council. Yet, they still have one building larger on the inside than the outside, despite us pointing this out to them on scheme 2. (Strictly speaking, it’s a higher Net Internal Area than Gross Internal Area, which is almost, but not quite, the same as saying a building is like the tardis!). Their figures have changed from scheme 2, but in strange ways. One listed building has grown, another has shrunk. All in the “checked” figures. And the listed buildings are still valued at below-average for EH10 and well below nearby properties. We’ll bring you more on the figures soon.

Here are the images we have produced for this development. They provide some terrible and inaccurate pictures themselves (even their own consultants have got confused between all the different schemes!) They have also produced a very rough model out of wooden blocks, but it’s so blocky it’s hard to get any idea of what the buildings would look like.

To object to this massive development, follow the instructions here.

Here is our image giving a summary of all the proposed buildings:

This is the building they call “Clouston”. It’s proposed to go at the top of the hill overshadowing South Craig:

Clouston aerial view

Here is “West Craig”, a block of 4-storey houses overshadowing Queens Craig and built into the woodland. We’ve also included the car-park in front of Queens Craig (there’s another one behind and some at the side, too):

Queens Craig, its proposed car-park, and West Craig

Here is the big proposed building at the entrance of the site. It’s hard for us to show you how big this building is. So that you can see it, we’ve missed out its long car-park in front.

Burton

This is North Craig, the building proposed to go where the boiler houses are right now. So, this would be in front of New Craig overlooking Meadowspot. You would see it in front of what are currently spectacular views of New Craig from the North.

North Craig

Next, we have the houses proposed for Craiglea Place. Last time, these looked very different and were very high. Now, they’re lower, but go further forwards and further back than the buildings currently there, so they’re still out of scale with the rest of the houses in that street.

Craiglea Place proposed houses

And this is Kings Craig, to go in woodland behind New Craig and Bevan. It’s very similar to West Craig, but longer. Don’t be confused into thinking there’s only 1 of these buildings, there are 2: Kings Craig and West Craig. Both are in the woodland.