January 2024 Planning Report                                           

 APPLICATIONS: since November meeting

  1. 22 Planning applications for STL in December.
  2. 10 Planning Applications for STL in January.
  3. Change of use from Class 1 retail to Class 3 restricted pizzeria at 32 Home Street – Mr Yummy.
  4. Conversion of attic into new dwelling at 3F2 13 Gillespie Crescent. Now a trend to convert the attics of tenements to flats.
  5. Retrospectively combine two adjacent takeaway food premises and change use to provide Class 3 (restricted) sit-down cafe and takeaway and repaint the shopfront at 3 & 5 East Fountainbridge – Scoff and was Braw Brunch.
  6. Change of use from Class 1 (retail) to Class 3 (hot food restaurant) at 57 Home Street – Razz Iranian Café
  7. Proposed change of use from Class 1 to Class 3 restaurant (Japanese Sushi Bar) with restricted cooking and alterations to shopfront at 63 Home Street Edinburgh – Tollcross Superstore
  8. STLs: As of 26.1.24., there were 176 applications for planning permission for STLs in Tollcross

Approximately 300 STL license applications in Tollcross with approximately 3700 for Edinburgh as a whole.

The Council spreadsheet is difficult to interrogate by community council – in fact it appears a bit of a rushed job with not much order to it.

With 2 legal judgements against the Council STL scheme, it is not clear what is the current way forward.

  1. The application for PBSA at 50 Gillespie Crescent has gone to appeal to the Scottish Government, due to non-determination by 29 December 2023. Documents sent by the Council to the Reporter suggest they would refuse the application but tellingly, not on grounds of overprovision. This may be a cynical ploy by the developer to avoid local scrutiny. It appears that this was probably the intended strategy by the developer from the start because:

It worked nearby at Lower Gilmore Place and other sites;

The underfunding and understaffing of the planning department makes non-determination within the 2 months more likely especially if it is known that further information will be requested;

Picking the date for the application so that when time starts to run out, it is Christmas and New Year when no Planning Committee meetings occur. They knew that no meetings would occur between mid-December and the 4th January;

The cornucopia of appeal documents seemed ready to go in on the exact deadline and it would appear unlikely that the developer waited for the 29th  December, expecting a decision, and then all the staff rushed round through the Hogmanay bank holidays. There were 73 complex documents sent to the Reporter on the day that the 2 months ran out (one working day after the New Year bank holidays).

 

DECISIONS:

No planning decisions except a handful of refusals and approvals for STLs.