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Pentland Film Studio (now at Dalkeith)

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  1. Frenchy
    Member

    Starting a separate thread for this, as it seems important. Discussion of previous proposal (at Straiton) is here: http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15798

    After the Straiton proposal was rejected (although possibly there's still an appeal to come?), the plan is now to build the studio north east of Dalkeith: https://variety.com/2019/tv/global/major-scottish-film-and-tv-studio-near-edinburgh-in-the-works-1203102851/

    NCN 1 currently goes right through the middle of that site.

    There's a public meeting at Woodburn Primary School on 31st January, between 4pm and 8pm.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

  3. ejstubbs
    Member

    @Frenchy: AFAIK the appeal deadline against the ruling re Jim Telfer's farm has long passed. They had 28 days after the ruling, which was made 3rd October last year. Looks like they've abandoned that idea and moved on to the Dalkeith plan.

    I've roughly overlaid the outline of the new proposal on to the Midlothian Local Development Plan map:

    The purple SW-NE hatching means "Committed Development STRAT1 - Established Economic Land Supply". The pinkish NW-SE hatching means "Proposals STRAT5 - Strategic Employment Land Allocations". I'm by no means 100% sure but I think that means that the land in question is already zoned for commercial development.

    The proposal also sits in an area which is conveniently free of any policy constraints:

    Together with the fact that the land seems to be owned outright, these may explain the optimistic/aggressive timescales mentioned in both articles for the studios to be up and running.

    Whether there is a need for two "major" or "world class" film studios in Edinburgh is another question.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. PS
    Member

    Whether there is a need for two "major" or "world class" film studios in Edinburgh is another question.

    Density of facilities can lead to an agglomeration effect - specialist services are attracted to the area due to the increased demand and likelihood of work, so 1 + 1 may actually be > 2.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. Nelly
    Member

    I must have missed this one as I have been on holiday - I had made the assumption that the Leith proposal was in place of the Pentland one???

    Surely the vaguely sensible notion would be to have one over here and one somewhere in the west - there are still some post industrial areas in west central scotland similar to the Leith yard that could do with a wee leg up?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. chdot
    Admin

    The director of the new Mary Queen of Scots blockbuster has revealed it would have been filmed entirely in Scotland had the country had its own film studio.

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/mary-queen-of-scots-director-wanted-the-blockbuster-filmed-entirely-in-scotland-1-4856443

    Posted 5 years ago #
  7. Frenchy
    Member

    Photos (not mine, but person who took them was happy for them to be shared) of the boards from the public exhibition yesterday:

    https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMqZlWKu_IoIOHXel51pTPhBeSs2Uo0Dn-jzeOgmPBIfEHtMfgpO9quupL4idlKSg?key=cGg3cE96ZUJIbjV1UkZycWYxSHRxOURoN3ZXUVFB

    Proposal is for the cycle path to be rerouted around the edge of the site (dashed white lines in the Indicatice Masterplan).

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. neddie
    Member

    Strange how they don't show any of those "rerouted cycle paths" on the Indicative Design 3D visual.

    Perhaps they're not really interested in that? Quelle surprise.

    Or perhaps they hope they'll be quietly forgotten?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. acsimpson
    Member

    I'm not sure I can describe how rubbish that appears to me. Will it become a forgotten strip with broken street lamps like NCN1(?) by QMU at Old Craighall?

    It's not just going round the block but then coming doubling back towards where you started. Most 2 year old could do a better job of scribbling that line.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  10. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Quelle surprise.

    We can't even get her name right. Who is this Scottish "Mary Queen" person of whom they talk?

    Not so much an Oxford comma as a Linlithgow comma.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Mary Queen maybe an upmarket Mary Doll?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. amir
    Member

    Very rubbish. Cycling and walking always the lowest priority despite the benefits and need for active transport.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    Of course it’s harder to refuse planning/add conditions when you need cash...

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/midlothian-council-still-faces-decimated-services-despite-extra-cash-1-4866480

    (And developers know that.)

    Posted 5 years ago #
  14. crowriver
    Member

    Yeah it's almost as though there was an ideologically driven government which is enforcing austerity long beyond any justifiable timeframe (11 years and counting), which sees the championing of private business interests as infinitely more important than delivering local services, planning controls, etc. Or something like that.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  15. gembo
    Member

    Straiton now to have an 8000 seater arena. Mad place to build a concert hall. Everyone will have to drive there. That is a lot of babysitters/designated drivers.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  16. CycleAlex
    Member

    Straiton? Come onnnnnnnnn.

    Not convinced the arena isn't just a Trojan horse for the 'retail destination'. Wouldn't be shocked if it slowly disappears until it's just a car dominated out of town shopping centre.

    Plans: https://i.imgur.com/SVrOd4F.jpg

    Posted 4 years ago #
  17. edinburgh87
    Member

    As a Loanheadian by birth (if that's a valid demonym) this is a dismal prospect and will probably seal the town's assimilation into Edinburgh. But progress etc etc...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  18. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I thought that The Turd was meant to be our hallowed big production kind of venue.

    I mean, good grief, even the planners in their most model-building, subterranean protomotorway car-centricism days of 1949 designed the St James Square redevelopment with a centrepiece concert hall.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  19. MediumDave
    Member

    Ironically those behind the Turd are challenging the Impact Centre concert hall round the back of Dundas House on the grounds that it might not be in keeping with the World Heritage Site.

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/chipperfields-edinburgh-concert-hall-faces-late-legal-challenge/10043927.article

    Presumably the Impact Centre (highbrow stuff) and the Straiton Arena (chariot races and gladiatorial combat?) are aiming at different markets.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  20. ejstubbs
    Member

    @CycleAlex: I'm probably being thick, but I can't work out from that picture where the Straiton venue is proposed to be located. What's the road running up the left hand side of the picture - is it supposed to be the bypass? I can't get the road that loops through the bottom left to match up with anything obvious in the vicinity. Are they proposing to re-route and/or build new access roads?

    If you have link to the site where that image came from, I'd appreciate the opportunity for a closer look.

    (I note that the "UK based entertainment, leisure and sports venue consultancy" Lothian Leisure Developments Ltd is rather more honestly listed at Companies House as having "Development of building projects" as the nature of its business. It's noted on Endole as being dormant since it was listed in 2017. One wonders what the three people listed as being involved with it actually do, other than scheme up ways to make shedloads of cash by getting stuff that may or may not be needed built and walking away...)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  21. Frenchy
    Member

    I can't get the image to open on my phone, so I'm perhaps just going to add to confusion, but I think the road you mention will be the proposed "relief road".

    Posted 4 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

    “One wonders what the three people listed as being involved with it actually do”

    I’m assuming this is one of them -

    https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/tom-ponton-faces-standards-probe-after-attack-on-provost-1-1054464

    Posted 4 years ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

    Ah yes -

    Ponton, who was born and brought up on the Royal Mile and served 23 years in local government in the Capital

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/new-8000-seat-edinburgh-indoor-arena-planned-straiton-site-1329784

    Posted 4 years ago #
  24. PS
    Member

    Can't remember where, but I saw a map online yesterday evening that indicated that the location is here.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  25. LaidBack
    Member

    Image shows the 8000 car parking spaces needed.
    Almost half the land used is doing nothing.

    So regressive and does nothing to shift the future to less car reliance. The canal zone was meant to be area where we could get some land used with public transport

    Posted 4 years ago #
  26. davecykl
    Member

    Hmmm, a shed in a desolate (and sometimes snow-bound) field in Midlothian with poor public transport (and definitely not very viable to cycle to)...

    ...or an actual city based venue in redeveloped docklands with harbour/river views [1], tram and bus links (perhaps even a whole new branch to get there so that car access is virtually unnecessary (if you must travel by car from outwith Edinburgh, leave it at Ingliston park and ride)).

    No, the latter proposal would be Pointless and would never work, would it, Dublin? (Sprinkle "world class", "international" and similar buzzword bingo, according to taste)

    [1] An opera house with waterside views? That'd never work, either. (Very unfortunate that they had to demolish one of the city's tram depots to do so, however.)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  27. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I saw a map online yesterday evening that indicated that the location is here.

    Yes. It's the site of the former Pentland Oil Works, and associated bing. The works ceased production in 1897 but didn't officially close until 1909.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  28. ejstubbs
    Member

    @Arellcat: Ah, gotcha. When it was first mentioned I thought that the proposal was intending to use the same land that was previously proposed for use by the film studio (less Jim's Farm, of course). In fact, though, the proposal doesn't put it on the main retail drag through Straiton - it doesn't even touch that derelict corner that the film studio proposal had earmarked for retail.

    @Frenchy: Yes, I think that's right - the road in the bottom left corner of the image posted by CycleAlex therefore being Pentland Road. In fact it looks as if the main public access to the venue would be via the relief road, making this proposal wholly dependent on it. IIRC the folks behind the film studio proposal were going to put money towards the relief road; it might appeal to Midlothian Council if they thought they could hold the developers of this proposal to ransom to fund a significant proportion of it in return for granting planning permission...

    (BTW, trawling quickly through the thread on the film studio proposal, I see that the St James centre developers objected to that as well - on the grounds that extension of the retail park would "undermine the 'vitality and viability' of shops in Edinburgh city centre".)

    Posted 4 years ago #
  29. Snowy
    Member

    Going by the satellite shot, that would be an awful lot of trees being cut down for this.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  30. Tulyar
    Member

    If you want to see how bad such venues are when based on car parking try central Brum when the City Arena chucks out - been driven at on the footway by drivers wanting to by-pass queues.

    Likewise SEC/Hydro/Armadillo events - with such poor connection to trains & bus routes.

    A massive transport debacle/disaster.

    Posted 4 years ago #

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