Hotel will 'enhance' city skyline

Published on Monday 1 June 2009 22:06

A TOWERING hotel development earmarked for a long-running gap site next to Edinburgh's Haymarket railway station will "enhance" the city's skyline and create a major new landmark for the capital, a senior council official claimed yesterday.

Design expert Lawrence Dowdall told a public inquiry into the controversial 200 million scheme that it would have little or no impact on the most significant viewpoints around the capital.

But he clashed with the lawyer representing the city's main heritage body over how the most important views were judged.

He also rejected suggestions the council had ignored its own rules by approving the scheme when it emerged that a local plan for the area suggested a new landmark in the area should be no more than six storeys high.

Mr Dowdall, an architect for 27 years, was the key adviser to the council on whether Irish developer Tiger's controversial five-star hotel development would affect the city's historic skyline.