Campaigners win battle to stop developer building on only park

CAMPAIGNERS have won the war against developers after plans to turn Cairntows Park into a housing block were scrapped.

Council-owned development firm Parc has dropped proposals to develop the green space into 145 homes and offices after it admitted local opposition had become too great.

Residents rallied against the plans to deprive the area of its only park, pointing out that there were several brownfield sites nearby.

Bob Bell, who spearheaded the campaign, said he was "delighted" to have won the fight. He said: "Eric Adair (Parc operations and finance director] called me this afternoon and said the planning application to develop on the land had been withdrawn with immediate effect.

"We are incredibly pleased. We've won the fight, which is sadly quite rare.

"I was sceptical at first, but Mr Adair assured me that they were disregarding Cairntows as a potential development site. He said if they returned to it in a few years' time, it would have nothing to do with this existing project.

"This is down to local pressure and shows what you can do if you put your mind to it. We were going to meet with developers on Monday and we expected in excess of 200 people to support us. But we have won the war."

Mr Bell added: "It doesn't stop there. We'd still like to see the park extended. Perhaps we could set up a committee, apply for some lottery funding and try and get some playpark facilities and a couple of goalposts set up."

Harry O'Donnell, chairman of New City Vision, which is responsible for the redevelopment of Craigmillar along with Parc, said: "We have taken the decision not to proceed with planning permission for a variety of reasons.

"First and foremost, however, we were aware of the considerable local opposition to our proposals. We are a company that thrives on working closely with local communities, developing positive and long-term relationships in order to ensure our considerable investment meets local needs.

"The level of local opposition for these proposals indicated to us that any positive working relationship moving forward would be difficult to sustain."

Chairman of Parc, Councillor Tom Buchanan, added: "Parc exists to support development in Craigmillar and we are keen to see companies such as New City Vision put forward proposals for the area."

Local councillors including Maureen Child and Ewan Aitken welcomed the decision. MP for Edinburgh East Sheila Gilmore said: "Just days before the local community were gearing up to take the developers to task at a public meeting, Parc and New City Vision have seen sense and pulled this plan.

"Save Cairntows Park should be proud of their cast-iron fight to save this local amenity.Cairntows was always the wrong place to build and Parc should be looking to build on existing brown space."

"NCV have plans for building on the Taylors site which already has planning permission and at Niddrie Mill School where they promise to retain the old building."

The Save Cairntows Park campaign gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition and attracted support on Facebook, Twitter and a website.

Around 80 members of the community attended a consultation with New City Vision's architect Peter Richardson of ZM Architects, though the meeting was postponed until June 20 due to the absence of a Parc representative.