In today’s edition:
Residents to choose how to spend £1.7m;
Community garden to receive ‘Dobbies support’;
More than 1,400 residents said to have moved into ‘Western Villages’;
Modernised Mortonhall bungalow wins BBC homes series;
BuildEdinburgh now a dot.com!;
Applications invited for a community grant;
Applications also invited, for climate-related ‘seed funding’;
Quintet of Edinburgh-based architects awarded ‘conservation accredited’ status;
Urban realm improvements expected to be high on the agenda of proposed Old Town ‘business improvement district’;
Restoration work at former Royal High School captured on video;
Views being sought on Portobello swim centre revamp plans;
Architecture exhibits on view at annual RSA show;
Leith Walk cycle path - record number of users estimated for a single day;
Balerno residents reportedly say No to ‘over-development’;
Petition launched, demanding playpark investment at Inverleith Park;
The original tram line, money expected to return to the city council;
New name given the Scottish Government housing brief;
‘Unapologetically modern’ homes to be marketed at South Queensferry site;
Namecheck for Edinburgh’s tenements; and
Enjoy, see you next Friday!
Residents to choose how to spend £1.7m
RESIDENTS are to be given the opportunity on how to spend £1.7m, raised by charging visitors to the city for overnight stays (aka the Visitor Levy).
It follows a ‘participatory budget’ debate at last Thursday’s meeting of the city’s Culture and Communities committee (here, agenda item 7.1).
It works out at approximately £100,000 per council ward, the final amount to be determined by the size of the ward. The first year alone will be £20,000 at least per ward.
Said papers (here) presented to committee members: “In February, the council agreed to allocate £2m of income generated from the first three years of the Edinburgh Visitor Levy through a participatory budgeting process. This is new funding and does not replace any existing grants.”
Of the £2m total, £300,000 will be allocated to administration.
The meeting was preceded by a deputation by the already-operating participatory budgeting scheme, Leith Chooses, which called for a longer timeframe in deciding which projects can be voted for and financed - arguing that it can take quite a bit of time for local people to even identify their priorities for their communities, never mind come up with specific projects to potentially meet them.
The papers continued: “Projects will be funded up to the value of £0.01m [£10,000].
“The process will not impose a hard lower limit on projects; but will have a suggested value of £0.005m [£5,000] to £0.01m during the first year.
“Projects with a value of less than £0.005m, and/or which are unsuitable for Visitor Levy participatory budgeting, will be directed to the Community Grants Fund as an alternate potential source for funding.”
There was a lot of debate as to whether the funding should be weighted to particularly support those parts of the city where there is a higher level of deprivation.
Read more, on the city council’s website, here.
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Community garden to receive ‘Dobbies support’
AN Edinburgh community garden has been chosen among 53 throughout the UK, to benefit from support from the garden centre giants, Dobbies.
Says Dobbies, here, of the service that Wee Garden Haven can expect to receive: “Dobbies Community Gardens is our nationwide initiative supporting groups across the UK to create, restore or enhance indoor and outdoor green spaces.”
Wee Garden Haven, in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, is described as a ‘nature kindergarten’.
The story is picked up by The Herald newspaper, here.
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More than 1,400 residents said to have moved into ‘Western Villages’
A DIFFERENT take on a story in last Friday’s BuildEdinburgh was reported by The Herald newspaper last week.
While BuildEdinburgh focussed (here) on the ‘thumbs up’ views of residents in new housing in Granton, The Herald’s Rose Moncur majored on the numbers.
She began her report, here: “More than 1,400 residents have moved into new homes at Edinburgh’s growing Granton Waterfront regeneration development.
“Western Villages, part of the Granton Waterfront redevelopment, has delivered 388 homes for social and mid-market rent and is designed to help create what planners describe as Edinburgh’s ‘new coastal town’.”
Read more, on the city council’s website, here.
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Modernised Mortonhall bungalow wins BBC homes series
A MODERNISED ‘mid-century’ bungalow in Mortonhall has been named the winner of this year’s BBC Scotland series, Scotland’s Home of the Year.
More details, here, on the BBC website.
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BuildEdinburgh now a dot.com!
SHARP-eyed readers will have spotted that this website is now no longer BuildEdinburgh.Substack.com but simply BuildEdinburgh.com - altogether much easier to share in conversation, if nothing else.
It has all been made possible - since the URL had to be first purchased and then Substack charge a fee for the transition - thanks to the generosity of readers who have upgraded their subscription from free to paying (£3.50 a month or £30 for the year).
If you are a free subscriber, you can generously show your appreciation of the site by doing similar.
The more paying subscribers, the more the site will be able to grow.
That said, the weekly news roundup will always be available to read, for free.
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Applications invited for a community grant
MODEST urban realm improvements are among the projects potentially eligible for grants of up to £5,000, with a call for applications launched on Monday by the city council.
Says the council, here: “The Community Grants Fund is a small grants scheme provided by the council. Grants of up to £5,000 can be awarded to constituted groups for local community activity. The purpose of the fund is to support local groups to try new things and develop small-scale activities that will benefit or add value to their community.”
The deadline for applications is the 29th of next month. Read more, here.
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Applications also invited, for climate-related ‘seed funding’
APPLICATIONS are also being invited from community groups, this time for climate-related ‘seed funding’.
Grants of between £250 and £20,000 are being offered by the local environmental group, Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network, here.
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Quintet of Edinburgh-based architects awarded ‘conservation accredited’ status
FIVE Edinburgh-based architects have been awarded ‘conservation accredited’ status by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
The quintet are: Lorna Crane, Purcell UK (Advanced status); Fraser Bell, CSY Architects (Advanced status); Ruth Rodger, Smith Scott Mullan; Nick Mills, Mills McCullough Architects and Alice Henderson, Historic Environment Scotland.
Read more, here.
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Urban realm improvements expected to be high on the agenda of proposed Old Town ‘business improvement district’
IMPROVING the public realm of the Old Town is expected to be high on the agenda of a proposal that local businesses come together to launch a ‘business improvement district’.
Reporting the proposal, Edinburgh Live website quotes one business owner, as saying, here: “"There's no proper management and coordination of this entire area of the city - yet it's so important to the success of our local economy.
“There are so many visitors, but we're also a city that’s still full of local residents - so we want to make improvements that benefit everyone, and by no means would this be focused on the visitor market.”
He added: “I’ve seen the growth of graffiti over the last even five years and it’s just staggering. I’m not saying it was spotless before, but it’s really demoralising. It impacts people’s property, homes, businesses.
“There’s a business owner opposite me who was targeted by the same person three times within less than a week. It’s soul destroying to see, especially when you’re reliant on that for your livelihood.”
The city centre and New Town has its own BID, Essential Edinburgh.
The Old Town initiative is the subject of a feature on the website, Edinburgh Inquirer, here.
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Restoration work at former Royal High School captured on video
RESTORATION work being carried out on the former Royal High School, on Regent Road, has been captured on video, to accompany an article in The Scotsman newspaper.
Writes the newspaper’s Jane Bradley, here (under the heading, ‘First look inside…’): “The main hall at Edinburgh’s former Royal High School is finally on its way to become a new concert hall for the city and the heart of the National Centre for Music, after a decades-long campaign to save the building.”
Watch the video, here, on YouTube.
Views being sought on Portobello swim centre revamp plans
VIEWS are being sought on how to revamp Portobello swim centre, with two drop-events taking place, the first next week.
Say the operators - the city council’s arms-length sports and leisure organisation, Edinburgh Leisure - here: “The consultation will give the public an opportunity to comment on proposed improvements to the Category A-listed facility, including internal reconfiguration to improve layouts, accessibility, and customer experience, while protecting key heritage features such as the pools and Turkish Baths. Feedback from the consultation will help inform the final design and investment decisions for the centre.”
Both drop-ins are taking place at Portobello Town Hall, the first on Tuesday, 10am-12pm and 6pm-8pm.
The second is a week on Monday, June 1: same venue, same times.
Adds Edinburgh Leisure: “An online survey will also be available for those who prefer to provide feedback digitally.”
The story is picked up by Ian Swanson, of the Edinburgh Evening News newspaper, here.
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Architecture exhibits on view at annual RSA show
THE annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy, on Princes Street, has opened, with architecture once again a key element.
The exhibition - the RSA’s 200th - continues until the 14th of next month.
View the architecture displays, here.
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Leith Walk cycle path - record number of users estimated for a single day
SOME 2,568 cyclists are estimated to have used the cycle path on Leith Walk during the course of April 30 - making it a record number of users of the path for a single day.
According to a social media post (here) by local ‘active travel campaigner’, Edward Tissiman, the record number was registered by a cycle counter at the Omni Centre.
Says Tissiman, last year’s highest single day figure (itself a record) for the path has been broken ten times already this year.
Meanwhile, the local cycle campaign group, Spokes, reports, here: “Our regular May traffic count, at Lothian Road and Forrest Road, found bikes up everywhere: northbound and southbound, morning rush hour and lunchtime.
“With car numbers fairly static compared to last year, bikes rose to 19.2 per cent of all vehicles in the morning and 12.3 per cent at lunchtime, our highest post-pandemic figures. At Forrest Road, morning bikes formed 31 per cent of all northbound vehicles, almost one in three.”
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Balerno residents reportedly say No to ‘over-development’
RESIDENTS in Balerno are understood to have lodged their opposition to their nearby Green Belt being ‘developed’ and also ‘large-scale housing growth’ - according to the district’s community council.
It follows an online survey conducted by Balerno Community Council, as it seeks to prepare a Local Place Plan - to feed into the city council’s wider planning targets for the years 2030-40.
Adds the Balerno community council, here: “Locals want preservation over expansion, better basics (roads, access, healthcare) before new development and a more inclusive, accessible, and community-focused village.”
Three LPPs have already been submitted to the council: Wester Hailes, Midmar Paddock and Astley Ainslie (here).
LPPs are currently being prepared by, among others, Fairmilehead and Morningside community councils.
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Petition launched, demanding playpark investment at Inverleith Park
A PETITION has been launched, demanding investment into the playpark provision at Inverleith Park.
Say the instigators of the petition, here: “Inverleith Park is one of Edinburgh's largest open green spaces, covering over 52 hectares and serving thousands of residents and tourists every week. Despite its size and prominence, it has the poorest play provision of any major park in the city. The limited equipment that exists is broken and unsafe, leaving children with almost nothing to engage with.”
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The original tram line, money expected to return to the city council
ALTHOUGH no exact figure was mentioned during yesterday’s meeting of the full city council (here, agenda item 7.3), several references were made of money (perhaps running into tens of millions of pounds) returning to the council from a reported out-of-court settlement with the legal firm that advised the council on the building of the original tram line between York Place and the airport.
As reported on the Edinburgh Inquirer website, here, and by the BBC, here.
Notorious for ending up several years late and substantially over-budget, the building of that line has been described in council papers - here - as “organisational incompetence” on the part of the council.
Also said the papers: “To note that.. aspects of the role of the council in the Edinburgh Tram project amounts to maladministration.”
Watch the webcast, here, from the 1:35:00 mark.
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New name given the Scottish Government housing brief
A NEW name has been given the housing brief at the Scottish Government, following the appointment of a new Scottish Government cabinet in the wake of the SNP triumph at the Scottish Parliament elections earlier this month.
While housing was most recently its own, single portfolio - occupied by Màiri McAllan - it is now paired with Social Justice, with Shirley-Anne Somerville its new cabinet secretary.
As noted here, on the Scottish Government website.
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‘Unapologetically modern’ homes to be marketed at South Queensferry site
BEGINS a media release issued by local developers, AMA Homes: “A collection of outstanding and ‘unapologetically modern’ new homes - that will transform a historic space in Edinburgh’s South Queensferry landscape - are soon to be launched to the market.
“The development of Q Gardens, an impressive reinvention of the Georgian Scotstoun House estate, is being carried out by luxury home specialist – AMA New Homes and marries Scottish architectural heritage with breathtaking contemporary design.
“Award-winning architects, Kettle Collective - known for landmark projects across the Middle East, Asia and Africa - have drawn up the plans for these striking new homes which will appeal to buyers searching for statement homes in a leafy garden setting close to the centre of Edinburgh.”
The release continues: “Q Gardens sits in the grounds of the former Scotstoun Park House, a grand mansion built in the 1770s, thought to have been originally part of the Rosebery Estate.
“The mansion was demolished in the 1960s after years of neglect and a modernist office block, Scotstoun House, was built in its place designed by influential architect, Peter Fogo.”
More details, here. The story is picked up by North Edinburgh News, here, and Urban Realm, here.
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Namecheck for Edinburgh’s tenements
AN article extolling the virtues of relatively high-density housing - something BuildEdinburgh has been advocating, including here - has given Edinburgh’s tenements a namecheck.
Co-written by James White, Professor of Planning and Urban Design at the University of Glasgow, it is a worth a read on the website, TheConversation, here.
Main image details: ‘East’ Waverley; all images copyright Mike Wilson