CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
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PLANS for an upmarket restaurant and a bank at the West End of Princes Street are set to be rejected amid concerns about a loss of shops from the famous thoroughfare.
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The property has been vacant for three years
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reject the Lloyds plan because “the proposed uses would weaken the shopping ambience of the city centre core frontage”.
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Mmm, thought the whole 'point' of town/city centres is that they are suffering from retail decline and lucky if they are able to "diversify".
How can it "reduce the shopping ambience" to put something in a unit that has been vacant for 3 years! (And, incidentally, was built as a cinema).
Council would rather have a Princes Street of empty shops than a Princes Street of rate-paying businesses it seems.
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When is a shop not a shop? Answer: when it’s a bank. That at least was the reason plans for an empty property on Princes Street came close to being thrown out this week.
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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/john-mclellan-give-it-our-best-shop-1-3306229
Easy to paint this as unnecessary red tape. However, these same "rules" also prevent shops from being turned into bookmakers, payday loan shops and the like without the need for planning permission.
What would the EEN be saying if it wasn't a lloyds bank, but a branch of Cash Converters.
"What would the EEN be saying if it wasn't a lloyds bank, but a branch of Cash Converters."
But that's (part of) the point - planning system should be able to allow one and stop the other.
And enable things other than 'shops' to be on Princes Street (and elsewhere) rather than empty units.
It's not as though PS hasn't had banks before.
(Originally built without shops of course!)
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_eng_one_2/0_engraving_-_one_2_104_princes_street_looking_east.htm
It's not as though PS hasn't had banks before.
Don't recall a furore when Burger King was replaced by HSBC?
Royal Bank has been at the West End for many years.
chdot - The planning system could be altered to ensure that pawn shops, payday lenders etc. always needed an express grant of planning permission prior to converting existing premises - pubs, car showrooms, arcades and hot food takeaways all need permission. All it would take is an amendment to the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Scotland) Order 1997, as amended.
As it stands - banks, pawn shops, payday lenders, bookies all fall within the category of "financial institution". You can convert any one of these into any other without the need for planning permission.
It is simply Council policy to prevent pubs, restaurants etc. from being located on Princes Street. They could easily change this policy if they wanted to.
So as the law stands, an existing bank can become a (more expensive) loan shop without needing planning permission?
For PS to become Scotland's favourite cafe culture street requires a change of CEC policy?
chdot - in short, yes.
M in shrt - ta!
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