Hard cash and conservation united over Old Town row

The capital’s chamber of commerce has intervened in the simmering row over claims that the city’s world heritage site risks being damaged by a new hotel, calling for the developers to go back to the drawing board.

It has urged the city council and government agency Historic Scotland to back down over an insistence that the scheme should not be a “pastiche” of other buildings in the area.

Heritage groups are furious that the plans submitted by developer Janson Property for the “SoCo” scheme were dramatically changed from those proposed by the firm earlier this year. However, the company has insisted that the changes were forced upon it.

Janson snapped up the site earlier this year after a previous hotel operator, Hoxton, pulled the plug on its involvement. Another operator, Ibis, has signed up to the scheme, which would see a 259-room hotel built alongside shops, restaurants and cafes.

However, the chamber fears that the gap site created by the blaze nine years ago will lie empty unless the row is resolved, with heritage bodies, architects and writers like Alexander McCall Smith voicing their opposition to the current plans.

The Cockburn Association has branded the proposed new hotel a “bland lump”, while the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland has warned that the plans “fail to match the quality and character” of other nearby buildings.

The Scotsman revealed last Saturday that Edinburgh World Heritage had withdrawn its backing for the scheme in protest at the latest “watered-down” plans for the site, saying they represented a huge “missed opportunity”.

Writing in today’s Scotsman, Graham Birse, managing director of the chamber, said alternative proposals put forward by heritage groups were far removed from being a pastiche and were “a simple reflection of the original building that is being replaced”.

He said the chamber was happy to throw its weight behind heritage concerns and called for a rethink to avoid protracted wrangling over the site.

Mr Birse said: “Given that there is widespread agreement about how attractive the original proposals are, it is perfectly within the gift of the planning committee to insert a condition of planning consent to reintroduce the original design.

“That way Edinburgh can secure the largest new development in the city centre for some time and a prominent gap site can be developed in an attractive way, rather than remaining like a broken tooth.”

Marion Williams, director of the Cockburn Association, said: “This is the first time I can remember the chamber of commerce supporting the heritage groups in the city, but their backing is very welcome.

“What is being proposed at the moment would be totally out of place, like the Missoni Hotel is on George IV Bridge. We don’t want to see anything like that happening again. We were against the previous scheme approved by the council two years ago, and this one is certainly no better.”

Janson told The Scotsman on Saturday that its proposals would “help heal a gaping wound in the heart of Edinburgh.”

The council has admitted that the current plans have “evolved” from discussions with the developer.