In the news, w/e May 15

May 15, 2026

In today’s edition:

‘Apart-hotel’ planning application resubmitted for whole tenement block in Tollcross;
Construction work begins on 55 ‘affordable’ homes;
Housing assurance given for ‘Muirhouse One’;
Braid Road ‘modal filter’ survives long-running traffic-calming saga;
Energy efficiency upgrades in store for 34 Edinburgh flats;
Residents interviewed on video, giving ‘thumbs up’ to new housing in Granton;
Self-catering accommodation data details said to have been updated;
Airport chief quoted, admitting arrivals hall ‘very industrial and dated’;
Leith Links toilets expected to be soon reopened;
Two, new Local Nature Reserves designated for Edinburgh;
Almost a third of Edinburgh people estimated to be worried about losing their home;
Montgomery Street Park gets itself a tiny pond;
Litter Pick taking place at Hidden Door festival site;
A third of Quartermile property owners based outside the UK;
Funding encouragement for resident-designed housing;
Teviot Row House among Scottish Design Awards nominations;
Permission being sought to colourfully repaint Hope Street Police Box; and
Enjoy, see you next Friday!

‘Apart-hotel’ planning application resubmitted for whole tenement block in Tollcross

A PLANNING application has been resubmitted, to turn a whole tenement block in Tollcross into an ‘apart-hotel’.

The scheme - here, ref: 26/01920/FULSTL - is for 27 Home Street, and follows the refusal, in February (confirmed here), of an application (here, ref: 25/04862/FULSTL) last October.

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

Construction work begins on 55 ‘affordable’ homes

CONSTRUCTION work has begun on delivering 55 ‘affordable’ homes at the corner of Old Dalkeith Road and The Wisp.

The scheme - part of a wider ‘Edmonstone Estate’ development - is being led by housing association, Sanctuary Scotland - as it reports, here.

The story is picked up by Urban Realm website, here.

Housing assurance given for ‘Muirhouse One’

AN assurance has been given that a single remaining resident of a block of flats in Muirhouse due for demolition will receive ‘suitable accommodation’ when - as expected - legal proceedings are concluded and the demolition goes ahead.

The assurance came, following a question by one of the members of the city council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee, which met on Tuesday, here.

Said papers (here) presented to the committee: “Since the last update in February, works have been ongoing to safely secure Inchmickery Court against unwanted access. There is one remaining tenant in the block, so essential services are being maintained while the eviction process proceeds through the Sheriff Court.”

Two blocks of flats - Oxcars Court and Inchmickery Court - have been scheduled for demolition (not renovation, due to costs, as noted, here, on BuildEdinburgh).

The assurance was provided following a question from Cllr Lesley Macinnes (around the 1.04:00 mark, on the webcast, here).

The story is picked up, here, by ‘local democracy reporter’ (his post paid for by the BBC), Joe Sullivan.

Braid Road ‘modal filter’ survives long-running traffic-calming saga

THE long-running saga about traffic-calming measures and car parking restrictions between the Braids estate and James Gillespie’s Primary School - taking in also Comiston Road - appears to have come to an end, with a decision to retain some ‘modal filters’, such as Braid Road, and remove some, such as Canaan Lane.

On Tuesday, members of the city council’s Traffic Regulation Orders sub-committee met (here) to ‘finally’ consider which measures to remove, keep temporarily, modify or make permanent.

To be retained: Whitehouse Loan at Warrender Park Road, Whitehouse Loan at Strathearn Road and Braid Road at Hermitage Drive. Meanwhile, being removed: Canaan Lane, Hermitage Gardens and Braid Avenue.

‘Finally’, insofar as the deliberations thus far have been mired in, among other things, wording errors, consultation exercises that have been met with scepticism, a seeming reversal of earlier decisions by elected members, a censure of two councillors and highly polarised views among the general public.

The decision to retain the Braid Road filter followed a 5-4 vote in favour of a verbal amendment suggested in the room.

It is understood the decisions regarding the filters to be removed will be reviewed in six months’ time.

Energy efficiency upgrades in store for 34 Edinburgh flats

THIRTY-four flats in Edinburgh - managed by the housing association, Viewpoint - are to be upgraded, to make them warmer and more energy-efficient.

Says a media release, the flats - in Cluny Gardens, Oswald Road and Charterhall Road - are to be upgraded by energy efficiency specialists, Union Technical.

Adds the release: “As part of the wide-ranging work, the company will improve insulation in lofts, cavity walls and garages, repair external rendering, provide draught-proofing and improved ventilation, as well as full window overhauls and installation of smart heating controls.

“The contract, Union Technical’s first for Viewpoint, was awarded under the National Retrofit and Decarbonisation Framework, a procurement route designed to fast-track energy efficiency improvements in homes across the country.”

Residents interviewed on video, giving ‘thumbs up’ to new housing in Granton

RESIDENTS of ‘Western Villages’ - comprising new housing in Granton - have been interviewed for a video (now on the video sharing platform, YouTube), giving the scheme an enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’.

The video was put together by the city council and can be checked out here, on the council website.

Self-catering accommodation data details said to have been updated

A CITY council spokesperson is said to have apologised for correspondence with a ‘self-catering apartments professional’ not being accompanied by an explanation of how personal details are kept by the council.

Writes Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco, under an ‘exclusive’ banner in The Herald newspaper, here: “A council spokesperson acknowledged that the relevant privacy notice had not been made available, but told The Herald that it had now been uploaded online.”

It is not clear to what extent the omission whether will be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office and what, if any, impact it will have on the rollout of the city’s upcoming visitor levy scheme (a modest charge on visitor overnight stays, to help pay for various ‘visitor-related’ projects in the city).

Airport chief quoted, admitting arrivals hall ‘very industrial and dated’

THE chief executive of Edinburgh airport has been quoted, saying the airport’s arrivals hall is “very industrial and dated” and “not the standard we aspire to”.

Gordon Dewar was quoted in an article by The Scotsman newspaper’s transport correspondent, Alastair Dalton, here.

Dalton continues: “The airport said the hall would be replaced as part of a major redevelopment of the terminal, but declined to provide a timescale.”

Leith Links toilets expected to be soon reopened

PUBLIC toilets at Leith Links are expected to be reopened at the beginning of next month, after being closed in December to allow repair work to be carried out by the city council.

According to correspondence received by the local community council, here: “Drainage remediation works have begun on site during the week commencing May 4.

“The construction works are expected to take approximately three to four weeks, followed by reinstatement of the surrounding area and testing of the drainage system before reopening.

“We are currently targeting completion by the beginning of June, subject to final testing and verification.”

Two, new Local Nature Reserves designated for Edinburgh

TWO new nature reserves are to be designated in Edinburgh, with an already existing one to be ‘expanded’.

Yesterday, the city council’s Culture and Communities committee agreed to a recommendation from officers, here, to designate Wester Craiglockhart Hill and Little France as Local Nature Reserves and to ‘expand’ (by a further 9.84 hectares) the existing 10.5-hectare nature reserve at Easter Craiglockhart Hill.

Ahead of the meeting, the story was picked up by Deadline News website, here.

At the meeting, an addendum was accepted, to ensure nature conservation work (including scientific studies) by Calton Hill Conservation Trust continues to be recognised.

Almost a third of Edinburgh people estimated to be worried about losing their home

ALMOST a third of people living in Edinburgh are estimated to be worried about losing their home in the next few years - polling has found.

The poll found the exact figure to be 31 per cent, just below the national average of 35 per cent.

Says Homeless Network Scotland, here, which commissioned the poll: “The research found 35 per cent of people across Scotland are concerned about losing their home because of pressures including the cost of living, a lack of affordable housing, high rents and rising mortgage costs. Concern is highest among 18-to- 24 year-olds, where almost half (49 per cent) share that fear.”

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

Montgomery Street Park gets itself a tiny pond

A TINY pond has become the latest addition to volunteer tending of Montgomery Street Park, just west of Easter Road.

It followed work carried out by at least 13 volunteers on Saturday, as reported on the Facebook page of the Friends of Montgomery Street Park (here).

Litter Pick taking place at Hidden Door festival site

A LITTER pick is taking place on Sunday, behind the location of the Hidden Door ‘independent arts’ festival in Maybury.

This year’s Hidden Door is taking place between June 3-7, as described here.

Details of the litter pick (which is taking place between 11am and 1pm) can be found, here.

A third of Quartermile property owners based outside the UK

SOME 263 of the 751 property titles involving properties in Quartermile are owned by individuals or organisations based outside the UK, 95 of them in Hong Kong.

The figures follow a deep dive by the BBC’s Andrew Picken into statistics (here) released in March by the Registers of Scotland (noted by BuildEdinburgh, here).

Writes Picken, here: “The vast majority of property and land in Scotland is registered to people and companies based in the country.

“But RoS data shows, external a total of 28,825 titles - 1.4 per cent of the total - on the land register where the owner had an address outside the UK at the time of purchase.

“Titles in Edinburgh account for 18.7 per cent of the overseas registrations.”

Meanwhile, a fourth-floor, two-bedroom flat in Quartermile - for sale, here, at offers over £595,000 - was the most viewed property, during last month, on the website of the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre. As noted, here.

Funding encouragement for resident-designed housing

FUNDING encouragement for resident-designed housing can be potentially found in the shape of a news story about a £50m investment in a build-to-rent scheme.

Reports Scottish Housing News website, here, the funding has been provided by the Scottish National Investment Bank into L&G’s Build-to-Rent Fund.

BuildEdinburgh has been spearheading resident-designed housing (here), but it will take resource to create a ‘movement’.

So, why not become a paying subscriber of the site?

So that BuildEdinburgh can research possible housing locations?

Teviot Row House among Scottish Design Awards nominations

TEVIOT Row House - considered the world’s oldest purpose-built students’ union - is among the nominations at annual awards celebrating the Scottish design sector.

The building, recently renovated, has been shortlisted in the Conservation category of the Scottish Design Awards, which will be revealing the winners on the 24th of next month.

The architectural section alone of the awards comprise some 18 categories: Architectural practice of the year, Lighting, Interior design, Regeneration and masterplanning, Conservation, Residential - single home, Residential - multi-unit, Affordable housing, Health building or project, Education building or project, Commercial/office/hotel building or project, Public building, Future building or project, Retrofit, Low-cost project schemes under 250k, Public realm/landscaping, Client of the year - architecture, and Young architect of the year.

Permission being sought to colourfully repaint Hope Street Police Box

PLANNING permission has been submitted to colourfully repaint a former Police Box on Hope Street, next to the Johnnie Walker Experience on Princes Street.

The proposed design - here - has been submitted to city council’s planning applications portal, here (ref: 26/01064/ADV).

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