Heritage body hits out over visual impact of 17-storey capital hotel

Published on Tuesday 26 May 2009 22:02

WORLD heritage body Unesco has strongly criticised plans for a 17-storey Edinburgh hotel, saying it would have a "major visual impact" on surrounding buildings in the capital.

A public inquiry into the 200 million project heard that the UN body had "considerable concern about the height of the proposed hotel in the Haymarket development".

A two-week public inquiry into the project at the disused Morrison Street goods yard near Haymarket railway station which includes two hotels, offices shops and restaurants, began on Monday.

Critics, including the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh World Heritage and residents' groups, say they do not object to the site being redeveloped, but insist the height of the 17-storey, five-star hotel, located at the edge of a World Heritage Site, is out of scale with buildings in the surrounding area.

The plans were originally backed by Edinburgh City Council but were "called in" by the Scottish Government because the site was previously council-owned. Unesco officials visited the city on a monitoring mission last November, raising fears that the city would lose its heritage status.

In its report to be presented to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville next month and released to the inquiry yesterday, they raise strong concerns about the hotel which Tiger Developments wants to build for its client the InterContinental Hotel Group. Unesco wrote: "The proposed 17-storey hotel would have a major visual impact on the property and dominate the St Mary's Cathedral towers from several key viewpoints."

The officials also said there was a need for a "declared buffer zone" between the proposed development and the heritage site, adding that current planning mechanisms seemed unable to deter proposals such as that for a 17-storey hotel.

The need to raise awareness among potential developers and stakeholders about the "outstanding universal value" of the city's Old and New Towns and what this meant for future development was also highlighted.

Commenting after the inquiry finished for the day, Maria Kelly, of the Dalry Colonies Residents' Association, one of the project's opponents, said: "We feel vindicated by the Unesco report. We were led to believe by the developers and the council that they would not be interested because it was outside the World Heritage Site."

At yesterday's public inquiry Ken Williamson, partner at Hurd Rolland, chartered architects, on behalf of the developers, was questioned by John Campbell QC, acting for the Cockburn Association, about part of his written submission.

This stated that in recent years objectors in Edinburgh to individual proposals that have undergone the full scrutiny of the statutory planning process had "sought to bring additional external pressure from the World Heritage Committee, in the form of threatening inclusion in the list of World Heritage in Danger or indeed removal from the World Heritage list".

Mr Campbell, QC, asked him: "Aren't there very strict criteria for inclusion." Mr Williamson relied: "Yes, very vigorous".

Mr Williamson also maintained the hotel would "signal the main gateway into Edinburgh" by creating a landmark building.