Friends of Craighouse Grounds and Wood

We have analysed a map of the proposals at Craighouse and put them on an aerial image so you can see where the proposed new buildings, walls, roads, car-parks and gardens go.

Here is the image of the site as it is now:

Craighouse as it is today, from the air

Here is a map of the proposals, including walls, fences, new buildings, gardens, roads, paved paths and car-parks:

Full proposals map on top of an aerial image of Craighouse, as produced by Friends of Craighouse

Here is a map of the trees to be removed. As was discussed with the developer in Morningside Community Council last evening, this does not include the shrubs to be removed, as there is no record of that. This is just the main trees proposed to be felled.

Map of trees proposed to be felled at Craighouse

Sorry for the delay in posting the letter and material considerations up. It is ready to put up but we are just waiting to double check about sending in comments after the general confusion caused by the deadline moving today (we are just double-checking that comments sent in now are accepted).  Hopefully they will get back to me tomorrow and we will post it up then to help people.

Thanks again for patience.

This morning, after pressure from Friends of Craighouse, the council admitted that they got the deadline wrong for the public consultation. We get 4 weeks, instead of 3. So we now have to change our advice letter to residents. The advice letter will go up on this site later today. In the meantime, here is some shocking information about the impact of the proposals on trees.

Much has been said by the developers about their concession to keep the orchard. But their plans show that the fruit trees on the orchard are proposed to be removed.

Here is a plan of all the trees to be removed. Trees marked with a cross are proposed to be removed. Click on the image to get the full plan:

Tree removals plan, with car-parks and new buildings shown

If you take out all the proposed car-parks and roads it is easier to see how many trees are being removed:

Plan of trees to be removed as part of Craighouse planning application. Trees marked with a cross are proposed to be removed

You can see a large number of trees around the edge of the site are proposed to be removed, which will have a massive impact on views into the site. Removing trees in the orchard will destroy a lot of what is so special about the place. Removing the trees at the north will mean that views of Craighouse from the north will be dominated by the “Boilerhouse Villas”, and not by that incredible view of New Craig rising above the trees.

There will be a huge impact from these plans on views from all across Edinburgh. The tree removals are a significant part of that impact. We will be releasing more shocking information about views and wildlife impacts (from the massive amount of information in the planning application) over the course of the next couple of weeks on the blog.

Here are some of the trees proposed to be removed:

After much pressuring from Friends of Craighouse, the council have finally had to release the Environmental Statement prepared for the Craighouse planning application. Last week they said all the documents were up but this key document was missing. It was not on the portal.

We have asked the Council repeatedly about this report. They have repeatedly said it was not being done.

Its  inclusion also means that we should have 28 days rather than 21 to put in objections. We have asked repeatedly about this also and the Council say 21 days because there is no Environmental Impact Assessment and no requirement for one.

This full report is required to be public by law. After pressure from us, they have released the non-technical summary of the EIA (also called the Environmental Statement). It should contain most of the real detail of the proposals and their impact on the environment and views across Edinburgh. Some of the information (especially in relation to views) is of extremely low quality, but we will come back to this in future posts.

These documents reveal the following:

• That the excessive new-build, far from being reduced, has increased, yet again, from 160,000sqft at the last set of exhibitions to 178,000sq ft. [Update 22nd November: the developers have since told us that the previous level of new-build was closer to 190,000-230,000sqft, so the current plans are a reduction, but only because they were very quiet about the massive quantity of new-build in their previous plans]
• That despite the Craighouse Partnership saying they have decided to save the orchard,  they intend to chop down all the apple trees.
• That The Craighouse Partnership intend to chop down most of the mature trees along the boundary with Craighouse Road and the line of mature trees next to the car-park (despite promises to the contrary in the meeting I attended)
• That bats are roosting in one of the buildings scheduled for demolition
• Protected species are contained in the old “consent site” they are claiming to have activated

These are public documents that should be made available BY LAW.

But we need to make people aware of what is going on and what the reality is for Craighouse.

Our “How To Object” letter will be available on the website from tomorrow. Thanks a lot for your patience.

We have quickly produced a diagram of the proposals, based on the view from Blackford Hill. This angle gives an easy to understand view of the impact of these proposals. We are working on more diagrams to show the proposals from different angles. Click in the image to view it full size.

The Craighouse planning application, as viewed from Blackford Hill

Ok so we’re looking at:

• 8 development sites all around the site
• East side of the lawn – houses on protected Open Space – new build development, gardens and roads
• A sprawling modern housing development across the carpark, green space, and woodland (examples of kinds of houses below) but this has also crept up the green space taking a bit of the bottom of the lawn – therefore we are left with a “squashed” lawn/orchard (see below)
• These two meet each other (see below) meaning that the panoramic vista will be foregrounded almost entirely by newbuild development
• an 8 storey modern “tower” block of flats where the Learning Resource Centre is – about twice the height of what’s there already
• Another block of flats in a modern office style nr Bevan
• Large modern building (see pic of Kings Craig below) opposite New Craig
• Newbuild around the listed buildings – numerous units.
• The boilerhouse villas are still there but called North Craig and might have changed a bit (see pic below)
• 6 houses adding onto Craiglea Place (pic below)

Here is the roads plan – you can see clearly on this one how the orchard and green space have been squashed and a lot of the Eastern side of the lawns have been taken for newbuild and the path that goes around the side is now a big road. Many of the design documents pictures are very bad quality with a lot of things veering off the edge of the picture or so fuzzy they are almost impossible to see properly – particularly any pictures dealing with the houses on the lawn. It is obvious they are built on the lawn there. We will try our best to do our best to get the most viewable of those pictures in the next couple of days – but it ain’t easy. If you would like to view them go to the design and access statements on the Edinburgh planning portal:

https://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/files/0569C0F06B918A19DD5417B8C0D1F4C1/pdf/12_04007_FUL-DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT__PART_2_-1485310.pdf

and

https://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/files/E9925D287903DE74C0E3FC67CBF8CD14/pdf/12_04007_FUL-DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT__PART_3_-1485311.pdf

There has been a lot of attention on the 8-storey block of flats on the hill where the learning resource centre is. But I wanted to show you some of the rest of the houses to give you a sense of  some of the buildings on the rest of the development sites – the sprawling housing development that will dominate the entrance and take green space, woodland and encroaches up the lawn, the extension to Craiglea Place and some of the stuff round the listed buildings. Tomorrow I will try and get a few more pics for you.

For the moment, a reminder of why the site is so special:

beautiful craighouse

extension of Craiglea Place

Large building opposite new craig on green space and woodland

the infamous boilerhouse villas – not sure if this has changed or not

a 4 storey house

Breaking news, we have had it confirmed this morning that the application has been submitted. We have not yet seen the plans and will bring you information just as soon as we can. There is apparently a lot of information to go through.

There will be 21 days to put in objections from when the application is on the portal. These are very important as these really do count. The application isn’t on the portal yet so we will let you know as soon as we can.

We will do everything we can to give you all the  information on material planning considerations so that you can get your voice heard, and we will also make our own letter available for people to read as soon as that is ready.

Thanks so much, everyone.
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Short update on old consent for university building: I understand there is a briefing meeting on Friday between planning and Councillors where this issue is being discussed. Our appeal letter is prepared and will be going in this week.

On the 18^th September there was a meeting at the City Chambers that included Councillors Andrew Burns and Gavin Corbett, various council officials in greenspace, parks and legal departments, representatives of the Craighouse Partnership, Common Ground Association and the Friends of Craighouse.

At this meeting was discussed a possible motion for the Council to call for a report to explore the possibilities of the Council taking over part of the land at Craighouse with a possibility of future community ownership.

The motion will be presented to the Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee on Tues.

We are very supportive of this motion.

We have long been supportive of the idea of community ownership or the community and Council working together with joint ownership of greenspace and woodland. We invited Robin Mclaren  to speak at a number of meetings. This is at a very early stage but we would like to commend Councillor Andrew Burns and Councillor Gavin Corbett for spearheading the meeting and Andrew Burns and Melanie Main for liaising with the Friends of Craighouse.

We are mindful that this is at an early stage and might not happen. The developers seem anxious not to wait and are telling people that the application is going to go in a couple of weeks, so we must do all we can to make sure there is not excessive newbuild on this truly special site. It is essential that this motion should not be used as an excuse for excessive newbuild, roads and carparking to be built across the rest of the site or for the site to be salami-sliced or access taken away to end up as a gated community.

The amount of land or areas are not a matter for the motion but for discussion at a later date. The Friends of Craighouse would back a community or community/Council offer for all protected greenspace and woodland on the site.

We asked for various amendments to the motion and are happy to report the motion has been amended to reflect the following:

• That the motion and any areas vested should not affect in any way the protections or designations on the site as a whole – whether public or privately owned.
• That the report also explore the  secondary option of Council and community working together  and owning any greenspace and woodland jointly
• Oral amendment – That the residents of Morningside and South Central be properly included and consulted with by inclusion of the South Central Neighbourhood Partnership to the South West Neighbourhood Partnership in undertaking the consultation process (the original motion only included residents the South West Neighbourhood Partnership which cut out Morningside and other areas right on top of the site.)
• Oral amendment – That the motion and any areas vested not infer that access be denied or the rest of the site be fenced off

We would like to thank Councillors Andrew Burns for agreeing to include the above and for promising the full inclusion of Morningside and South Central residents going forward.

We hope that the motion may lead to a proper open discussion that leads to a solution to the rest of the site. This would be advantageous to the Craighouse Partnership in terms of reducing their overall liability and provide a good management solution long-term for the new residents and the general public.

It remains to be seen if anything concrete comes of this. This motion merely calls for a report to be commissioned and consultation to take place. But the will and offer  is there – from Common Ground, from Friends of Craighouse and hopefully – from the Council.