In the news, w/e June 5

Jun 05, 2026

In today’s edition:

Council halts ‘buyback’ scheme at Westfield Court;
Granton Waterfront: in-person update on regeneration programme;
International retrofitting conference set for September;
Big house building programme approved;
Draft Astley Ainslie ‘place brief’ expected in September;
RSA annual exhibition ending on the 14th;
The cost of a weekend break in Edinburgh;
Craigentinny litter pick;
Co-chairs appointed to oversee east Edinburgh £20m ‘Pride in Place’ programme;
Green light for Wester Hailes adventure playground;
Care facility public consultation events scheduled;
South Bridge paint job;
Average house price, Scotland;
‘Affordable’ housing construction completed at Blackford;
Do consider becoming a paying subscriber;
Trio of Princes Street stores closed;
Council to withdraw providing factoring service in four blocks of flats;
Fines regime agreed for visitor levy evasion;
Call to be made to open city’s large private gardens;
On the road with the city’s fly-tipping team; and
Enjoy, see you next Friday!

Council halts ‘buyback’ scheme at Westfield Court

FLATS in the Gorgie high-rise block, Westfield Court - which is facing a prohibitively expensive repair bill of circa £500,000 per property - are no longer going to be purchased by the city council, in order to achieve the majority ownership necessary to proceed with demolition.

The council currently owns 32 of the 94 flats in the block (as noted, here, on the council website).

Members of the council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee voted 6-5 on Monday (here, agenda item 4.4) to halt a ‘buyback’ scheme, after it emerged the building could be protected against demolition by a ‘listing’ from Scottish Government agency, Historic Environment Scotland (as noted in last week’s BuildEdinburgh, here).

Said papers (here) presented to members: “Officers believe it is likely that listed status will be awarded and therefore feel that the full ownership strategy is no longer appropriate. On that basis, no further work will be undertaken to purchase properties in the block until we are notified of a final decision.”

The story is picked up by, among others, broadcasters, STV (here), and The Herald newspaper, (here).

Granton Waterfront: in-person update on regeneration programme

AN in-person update on the regeneration of the Granton Waterfront is being held later this month.

A ‘drop-in’ event has been scheduled for the 22nd, taking place between 4pm and 7pm; details here.

International retrofitting conference set for September

AN international conference - exploring how to reduce energy demand in buildings, enhance building performance, decarbonise heating systems and reimagine how buildings can be reused - is taking place in Edinburgh in September.

Details of the International Retrofit Conference - being organised by innovation centre, BE-ST (Built Environment, Smarter Transformation) - can be found here.

Big house building programme approved

BEGINS a city council announcement: “Councillors have agreed a programme for this financial year to spend more than £207m on improving and expanding council housing across the city.”

Adds the announcement, here: “On Monday, members of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee approved the 2026/27 Housing Revenue Account capital programme for investment, which is part of the Housing Revenue Account Budget Strategy 2026/27 to 2035/36.

“The programme includes a commitment of over £111m for house building in 2026-27, contributing to the development of around 4,275 new affordable houses over the next five years.

“This is the first year of a major intervention to address the housing emergency [announced in November three years ago, here] through the allocation of a total £1.3 billion to deliver settled homes over five years.”

Draft Astley Ainslie ‘place brief’ expected in September

A CITY council-produced draft ‘place brief’ for the Astley Ainslie ‘hospital’ site in Morningside - which is being partly released by NHS Lothian - is expected to be drawn up by September.

Says the Astley Ainslie Community Trust, it hopes the city council will take on board many of the suggestions contained in a Local Place Plan (here) that it has produced for the area.

An update from the Trust, here, begins: “As you may or may not know, there has been increased contractor activity on the Astley Ainslie site, and, probably because of this, inaccurate rumours are circulating.”

RSA annual exhibition ending on the 14th

QUICK reminder: the annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy (at the bottom of The Mound, and which includes two architecture rooms) ends on the 14th of this month.

Details, here.

The cost of a weekend break in Edinburgh

A TWO-night stay for two people in a three-star hotel in Edinburgh is estimated to be the most expensive among Europe’s capital cities.

And when other aspects of a weekend stay are factored in - e.g. a beer, bus or train travel into the city centre from the airport, etc - Scotland’s capital has been found to be third most expensive.

According to a survey conducted by the Post Office - here - the two-night stay for two has been estimated at £462, ahead of Barcelona (£457) and Dublin (£455).

In terms of the estimated overall cost of a weekend in Edinburgh, it is third (at £668.10), behind Copenhagen (£670.65) and Oslo (£733.99).

At £248.39, Sarajevo is estimated to be the least expensive weekend break.

Craigentinny litter pick

A LITTER pick is taking place behind Craigentinny golf course, on Tuesday evening.

It is being organised by the city-wide litter picking group, Edinburgh Trash Club, which is suggesting a 7pm start, meeting at Craigentinny Avenue North (at the Arnold Clark premises).

And, elsewhere, there is a ‘Big Forth Cleanup’ scheduled for August 28-30, as detailed here.

Co-chairs appointed to oversee east Edinburgh £20m ‘Pride in Place’ programme

TWO co-chairs have been appointed to oversee a £20m scheme - over the next ten years - to help regenerate parts of east Edinburgh, including Niddrie and Craigmillar.

Writes Donald Anderson, former council leader and now, among other things, chair of the volunteer group forum, Eastern Synergy Group: “The Pride in Place fund will help regenerate and transform important neighbourhoods in the east of the city.”

And the co-chairs for the scheme have been named as ‘local campaigners’, Miranda Baird and Bill Wishart.

Continues Anderson, in the Edinburgh Evening News, here: “Targeted spending on improving the public realm, cleanliness and attractiveness of the local environment is at the cutting edge of regeneration and as research in America has proven, improving the local environment in Chicago reduced crime and anti-social behaviour and improved health and wellbeing. The communities of east Edinburgh should see an improvement and soon hopefully.”

Green light for Wester Hailes adventure playground

PLANNING permission has been given for an adventure playground in Wester Hailes, that will be part-designed by the users.

The scheme - proposed by Wester Hailes Growing Community, which explains the project here - was approved by planning officials, as detailed, here.

The story is picked up by the Edinburgh Evening News newspaper, here.

Care facility public consultation events scheduled

TWO public consultation events are being held, for people to find out more about plans for a 132-bed residential care facility neighbouring the Braid Hills Golf Centre.

The events are required of the Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) that has been submitted for the Braid Hills Nursing Centre site on Liberton Drive.

The PAN details can be found, here (ref: 26/02266/PAN).

It says: “Proposed replacement of existing 119-bed care home with new 132-bed care home and associated retirement / specialist care accommodation to meet current Care Inspectorate standards.”

The events are both taking place at the site: Wednesday, July, 8, 3pm-7pm, and Wednesday, August 5, 3pm-7pm.

South Bridge paint job

EXTERNAL painting has been completed on a key building on South Bridge.

Scaffolding was taken down yesterday, at the site near the crossroads with the High Street, to reveal a gleaming frontage comprising mainly ‘Coral Silk’ (PPG no. 11955).

The job was carried out by IRO Painting & Decorating.

Average house price, Scotland

THE average price of a house in Scotland, in March, was £187,000 - according to the Registers of Scotland.

Says RoS, here, that's 1.6 per cent higher than 12 months ago but 0.2 per cent lower than in February.

‘Affordable’ housing construction completed at Blackford

CONSTRUCTION has been completed on what is being described as the ‘first affordable homes in Blackford for 60 years’.

Says house builder, Cala, the 12 homes - on the site of the former St Crispin’s School - have been handed over to social housing specialists, Wheatley.

The story is picked up by ProjectScotland.com, here.

Do consider becoming a paying subscriber

LAST night, a group of paying subscribers met at ‘The Diggers’ pub, to brainstorm ideas for website - ranging from Princes Street to Granton to cohousing - and how to begin building a social media presence.

There was a real energy and lots of laughter too, and you can be part of it by upgrading your free subscription to paying.

Soon, paying members will get to decide what editorial the site should seek to pursue over the coming weeks.

Trio of Princes Street stores closed

NO sooner had they appeared on Princes Street, but three adjacent stores have been closed (notices on two of them say ‘permanent’): House of Treasure, The Edinburgh Gift Vault and 7DaySmart.

Council to withdraw providing factoring service in four blocks of flats

THE city council is to withdraw from providing a factoring service in four blocks of flats where it is a ‘minority owner’.

The decision - taken by the council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee, on Monday (here) - concerns Coillesdene House in Joppa and Saunders Street blocks in Stockbridge.

The story is picked up by Edinburgh Live website, here.

Fines regime agreed for visitor levy evasion

ACCOMMODATION providers who evade charging a levy on visitors for overnight stays in the city, face a fines regime - with fines of up to £49,350 theoretically possible.

A fines framework was approved by the city council’s Policy and Sustainability committee (here, agenda item 7.3).

The levy comes into force on the 24th of next month, as detailed here.

For individual short-term lets, the proposed fines framework (here) anticipates between £1,084 and £3,983.

The possibility of nearly £50,000 would apply to commercial operators. But papers presented to committee members also anticipate a fine for them as low as £405.

The story is picked up by The Herald newspaper, here, and Edinburgh Live website, here.

Call to be made to open city’s large private gardens

A CALL is to be made on Monday, for a voluntary scheme that could see the city’s large private gardens - such as Charlotte Square - opened to the general public, potentially in return for maintenance and insurance being provided by the council.

Cllr Dan Heap has tabled a motion - to be considered by the city council’s Culture and Communities committee (here, agenda item 5.1) - requesting a report by December on the viability of such a scheme, which is taking inspiration from St Andrew Square which has been open to the public since 2008.

The story is picked up by The Herald newspaper, here.

On the road with the city’s fly-tipping team

IT costs an estimated £2m a year for the council to clean up fly-tipping, according to a feature on the Edinburgh Inquirer website, titled, ‘On the road with the city’s fly-tipping team’. Read it here (subscription required).

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