Neighbours fight to stop B&B turning into homeless hostel

A HOTELIER'S plans to turn his B&B into a hostel for the homeless has fallen foul of residents in a small Southside street.

Residents of Marchhall Crescent say they fear that a sudden influx of transient tenants will change the character of their street.

The owner of Hotel Ceilidh-Donia, Maxx Preston, says he has applied for a licence to offer temporary accommodation to Edinburgh City Council because he wants to help the homeless, but the idea has angered his neighbours.

Teacher Maureen Tremmel, 51, lives in the street with her husband Michael, two grown-up daughters Ruth and Rachael, and her elderly mother Patricia.

She said an existing, long-term care home for vulnerable adults located in the street had caused no problems to residents, but she was worried about the arrival of up to 30 short-term residents.

She said: "This is a fairly small street and it houses about 30 to 35 adults and 12 to 15 children.

"We already have a care home in this street which is well-managed and well-run. If you then have another 30 individuals you completely change the residential character and focus for that street.

"My mother's disabled, in her 70s and lives with me. She's feeling vulnerable. She said 'I'm feeling safe because I know all my neighbours', but soon she won't know them."

Mrs Tremmel said she had spoken to the 20 households in the street and found 18 of them were opposed to the change.

Her neighbour, banker Grant Chambers, 41, said: "It's just down to the fact that it's completely disproportionate in terms of the size of the hostel as opposed to the size of the street.

"It changes the character of what's currently a very small, quiet, peaceful family street. The demographic of people in hotels is not the same as people coming to short-term crisis management.

"We were advised by the council's housing officer that they would try and treat the area as 'sensitive' and house their 'less chaotic' clients there, but trying and achieving are two very different things."

However, Mr Preston said he was providing a public service to disadvantaged people.

He said: "This is a social need in the country at the moment. People are being dispossessed of their houses. We thought it would be helpful if we could offer rooms to the council.

"There are people who are distressed at being homeless and we said, 'is there a need for people in extra bedrooms?' and they (the council] said 'yes'."