Grassmarket Resident's Association

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The City of Edinburgh PLanning Committee decided to delay a decision on the porposed hostel's initial planning application, in part due to the number of objections received. A large number of objections were submitted by individuals in the area and as a result the CEC Planning Committee decided they would have to make a site visit before making their decision. This decision is due on 28th January.  

 

Subsequent planning applications have been submitted by Art Roch for retrospect permission to knock a door through the Portsburgh Chapel (which forms part of the hostel|) to Patrick Geddes Gardens (also known as West Port Gardens). The application is due to be decided on 4th February.

 

Scotsman article, Thursday 10 December 2009
 
HOSTILE REACTION AS HOSTEL TOUTS FOR BUSINESS


Councillors are to visit the site of a backpackers’ hostel set to open its doors in Edinburgh’s Old Town without planning permission. Campaigners have demanded the rejection of the plans to turn a former Salvation Army hostel in the Grassmarket into a hostel after work started several months before councillors had ruled on the development.
 
The Art Roch hostel is already taking bookings and promoting its bar, even though there is a ban on new licences being issued in the area.
 
Community leaders have accused the hostel owner of ruining a community garden named after town planner Patrick Geddes by chopping down trees and earmarking it for a beer garden. However, officials have given their approval to the hostel, insisting it will be returning a historic building to its original use - even though it was built as a women’s refuge in 1900.

Response (abridged) from the City of Edinburgh Council, Wednesday 9th December 2009

 

2 WEST PORT - PROPOSED CONVERSION OF THE FORMER HOSTEL INTO A BACK PACKER'S HOSTEL TO INCORPORATE A CAFÉ (09/02401/FUL)

 

The application was presented to the Development Management Sub-Committee on 9 December and was continued for a site visit by the members. Whilst the members understood this was not a ‘use’ issue as there is already planning permission in place for an apart-hotel, which is in the same use class as a hostel; they wanted to visit the site to ensure they had considered all aspects of the development.

 

Planning cannot prevent the Hostel from opening but it would be running without planning consent. However, it is not appropriate to initiate enforcement action whilst there is a live application that has yet to be determined.


There is a public café attached to the Hostel but this is not a licensed café; there is no bar attached. Planning cannot control how the Hostel will be managed and the behaviour of its customers but conditions are recommended on the planning permission to control noise.

 

Press Release - Tuesday 7th December 2009

 

Proposed Hostel last straw for Grassmarket residents


The prospect of yet another back-packer’s hostel operating in the Grassmarket area - seemingly with the blessing of the Council's Planning Department - has dismayed local residents. The so-called ArtRoch Hostel has carried out a refit of the former Women's Hostel at 2 West Port and is announcing 21st December as its grand opening - but it still has to be granted planning permission, and doesn’t appear to have the appropriate building warrant.

 

Elspeth Wills, Chair of Browns Place Residents Association said: "The 14 households here are among the most directly affected. Our concerns are not only with potential late night noise and disruptive behaviour but also with the way that the development has been steamrollered - cutting down trees on land earmarked for a school eco garden, failure to consult local people, advertising stag and hen accommodation, demolishing a gate which has resulted in at least two drugs deals in the secluded space behind in the last three days. The list is endless but the developers are clearly confident that planning consent is a done deal.'

 


The report by the city’s planning officers (read it here) comes just a few weeks after the Council accepted that the night-time economy is adversely affecting residents in the city centre. The motion (read it here) by Councillor Mowat (Conservative) notes “unacceptable levels of anti-social behaviour and noise occurring on the streets of the city centre in the early of hours of the morning, particularly at weekends, which impact negatively on the quality of life of residents in the affected city centre areas and the routes out of these areas”. A hostel which is openly advertising accommodation for stag and hen parties is liable to make matters considerably worse.


“The response of City of Edinburgh Council is very disappointing” said Sean Bradley, Chair of Grassmarket Residents' Association, “and the report produced by planning officers is inadequate and misleading"


“The report attempts to justify the development by stating that it “reverts the building to its original use”. No sensible person would equate what was a women’s refuge with a proposed hostel for hen parties.


The report also suggests that the development will be not cause “undue traffic problems”, nor be “detrimental to road safety”. Anyone who knows the location will find this assessment quite beyond belief. Access for deliveries on West Port has been a contentious issue for many years and the proposed hostel is on the worst site imaginable: at a busy road junction with a pedestrian crossing, a narrow pavement and no access for vehicles whatsoever”

 

The application will be discussed at the City of Edinburgh Council Planning Committee on Wednesday 9th December.