Presume "contract" isn't public(?)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Luxury hotel planned for Old Royal High School" (or music school?)
(216 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/andrew-wilson-nimby-threat-to-edinburgh-success-1-3980103
"This week’s close call by the city council to reject plans for a five-star hotel on the old Royal High School site, shamefully derelict for nearly half a century, is world class only in its short-sightedness and the economic self-harm that it commits.
"Posted 8 years ago # -
Oh well the Scottish govt can just over rule. As they have done several times?.?. I was in the wee shops opening in the arches on Friday having a nosey. The first tattoo shop for objects was first opened. Graphic designers who can burn designs onto your stuff (chopping boards, MacBooks etc), a photographic print gallery, and a retro football top shop also selling cashmere football scarves. All very chatty. Football retro man told me that the premier inn next door was two hotels. The one that I thought looked too fancy for a premier inn is a concept premier inn (I.e. fancy), there is then a bog standard premier inn and then next to that the old canon gate school is to become a boutique hotel. Then venturing across the road to the old eastern Scottish bus depot, yes you've guessed it another hotel. So the one up at Royal high school would be close to the competition but with jacob's ladder to descend. Though the building across the road St. Andrews house looks like it could be sold and turned into a hotel too. Also the spot on the corner where the monument to burns looks out towards north Berwick would be cracking site for wind farm?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Governor's House would make a cracking boutique airbnb.
"Stunning views across Edinburgh in this unique historic property built on the site of a former prison".
Holyrood Abbey would be a great premium camp site for festival visitors.
"Sleep under the stars in amazing historic ruins. Just a stone's throw from city centre amenities. Toilet facilities at the nearby Holyrood Park visitor centre".
Posted 8 years ago # -
That article is a bit all over the place.
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Scotland needs five-star hotels. We have only 2,929 five-star beds in the whole country."
I expect most are in Edinburgh already, so only fair to share them out.
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St Andrew Square now shames Charlotte Square because it is open to the public at the heart of their city while its neighbour at the end of George Street is behind locked gates. It’s embarrassing for Edinburgh and all the residents of the square who make it so. Where else in our world?
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"Where else in our world?"
Well apart from Queen Street etc.
Whatever the merits of opening such gardens, neither CEC or SG is about to compulsorily purchase or extend community ownership laws to extend to such places.
I presume the writer is
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He lives in Balerno, Edinburgh with his 3 children. He was part of a group that raised some money for charity, cycling under the name of the Balerno Dads.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilson_(politician) (former SNP MSP) now of http://www.charlottestpartners.co.uk/about.html
Can't find a client list.
Posted 8 years ago # -
He is not me in case anyone thinks that is possibility but I do know him
Posted 8 years ago # -
He lives in Balerno, Edinburgh with his 3 children
I wonder what his views are on the green belt building projects in and around that corridor?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Music school idea sounds much more appropriate. http://news.stv.tv/east-central/1335186-music-school-plans-for-former-royal-high-building-formally-submitted/
Posted 8 years ago # -
Buried at the foot of that article is a really interesting idea:
"Meanwhile former MSP George Foulkes is make a suggestion in the House of Lords that the building should be used as a second chamber for the Scottish Parliament.
Although no formal plans have been submitted, Lord Foulkes will reportedly make an amendment to the Scotland Bill to be debated by peers on Tuesday."
The Scottish Parliament probably does need another system of checks and balances to executive power, particularly now the 'consensus' model supposedly enshrined in the electoral system has largely broken down.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Heh. Buried in George Foulkes', sorry Baron Foulkes of Cumnock's, 1979 election manifesto was a commitment to abolish the House of Lords.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Another elected house? Just what a country of 5 millions needs, more politicians and associated "support".
Posted 8 years ago # -
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The furore over the Royal High hotel plan proved that contention. The fact that the committee was split down the middle over the proposal showed conclusively that there is no agreement and certainly no consistency in the way the council views the future. Some might say that’s democracy at work, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit of good old fashioned political direction in the process.
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Posted 8 years ago # -
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World-leading percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Queen’s former composer, and Simon Frith, chair of the Mercury Prize judges, are among the big-name backers.
Other supporters include Richard Hillier, the headmaster of Yehudi Menuhin’s world-famous music school, where both Nicola Benedetti and Nigel Kennedy were taught, and Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Their backing has emerged just weeks after councillors threw out hugely-controversial plans to turn the former Royal High School into a £75 million hotel targeting the world’s “elite” travellers.
A rival bid to take over the A-listed 19th century landmark emerged last spring when it was announced that American arts philanthropist Carol Grigor had offered to bankroll the new home for the music school.
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Posted 8 years ago # -
My son studies at St Mary's Music School. There are some extraordinarily talented kids down there, working extremely hard to get to where they want to be. Historically the school has trundled along on a shoestring budget. Facilities are lacking to say the least. I truly hope they get the go ahead, I can't think of a better use for the site. Will showcase some of Edinburgh's up and coming cultural stars of the future and allow them to expand in a way that music schools down south take for granted - i.e. proper concert hall, more space for more students (= more money, better facilities). If it's turned into a hotel complex I will give up on Edinburgh as a cultural capital.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Councils are often surprised to find that buildings designed and built as schools turn out to make excellent schools.
But still try and turn them into flats, hotels, anything but schools...
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Councils are often surprised to find that buildings designed and built as schools turn out to make excellent schools.
But still try and turn them into flats, hotels, anything but schools..."
Recently they've also been surprised to discover that buildings designed to make private companies profits make unsuitable schools even if they have been used as schools since they were constructed.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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Cllr Steve Burgess: Council Planning committee unanimously approves application for new St. Mary's music school at former Royal High School, Regent Road
Posted 7 years ago # -
So what happens now? What about the Hotel plan?
Posted 7 years ago # -
LivD - it depends. The hotel application was refused, but the developers have appealed to Scottish Ministers, who could overturn the Council's decision. If that happens then it will be down to the Council, as owners of the old RHS, to decide who to sell/lease it to.
If Ministers choose to also reject the application, then the music school is the only game in town (unless the developers go to a judicial review - unlikely though). I'd expect to see lots of pro-hotel PR over the coming weeks - lots of extravagant claims about 6* hotels and hundreds of jobs. In the hope of changing a few minds.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"I'd expect to see lots of pro-hotel PR over the coming weeks - lots of extravagant claims about 6* hotels and hundreds of jobs. In the hope of changing a few minds"
AKA advertorial press releases that the EEN will reprint without amendment.
Posted 7 years ago # -
What about the Hotel plan?
The (very unfavourable for the landlord) lease that the council had agreed with the Hotel development was contingent on them getting planning permission, so it would be neatly solved by this being refused.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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It comes after previous plans to turn the landmark building into a five-star hotel were knocked back - however developers are currently appealing that decision.
Despite the approval, St Mary’s currently has no right to the building, with a lease being held by hotel developers Duddingston House Properties.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
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Adam Wilkinson, director of the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, said: “We’re at a total loss to understand what the developers are playing at.
“This makes no sense in the context of the public inquiry or the case they’ve previously made about the viability of their scheme.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
"The two developers have blamed the “current economic climate” for the decision to submit a new scheme just weeks after an initial appeal hearing into their original bid."
Okay. So all we have to do is wait a year or so and their plans will crumble to dust as their funding evaporates... Brexit is coming, the “current economic climate” is going to get worse before it gets better. Can't quite believe the Council allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by these wide boys.
Hold tight, music school trustees, your time will come sooner than anyone expected.
Posted 7 years ago #
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