Redevelopment of Midlothian Snow Sports Centre

Posted on: February 6, 2020

The Cockburn’s response to an application to radically alter leisure facilities at Hillend

The Cockburn’s response to an application to radically alter leisure facilities at Hillend

Cockburn Response

The Cockburn Association objects to application.

We have no objection to the upgrading if the existing spots facilities per se.

However, the development of new hotel facilities in this high profile location is wholly inappropriate and is likely to have significant and negative impacts on views to the Snow Sports Centre, day and night, from a considerable number of vantage point and at a considerable distance from the site.

The incursion of hotel facilities will also radically change the way in which this site functions. In particular, we are concerned about potential negative impacts on an already inadequate local road infrastructure and access too and from the site.

RESULT: A modified application was approved in February 2021 

Further Details Here

Back to Listings

Royal Hospital for Sick Children Site Redevelopment

Posted on: July 26, 2018

Our comments on development proposal for former hospital site, registering our opposition to plans to demolish rather than retain or reuse certain buildings on Sylvan Place and Rillbank Crescent.

Our comments on development proposal for former hospital site, registering our opposition to plans to demolish rather than retain or reuse certain buildings on Sylvan Place and Rillbank Crescent.

Cockburn Response

The Cockburn’s Urban Design Group (CUDG) had the opportunity to visit the RHSC site with members of the design team. CUDG commends many aspects of this ambitious project which will bring traditional residential properties back into residential use, repurpose an important heritage building, provide student housing and much-needed affordable housing and open-up new access routes.

However, we would strongly urge consideration of the following points:

We are not convinced that the complete demolition of the A & E unit on Sylvan Place is necessary. We would urge reconsideration of façade retention. If this is not feasible, we would strongly encourage the re-use of key architectural elements from the existing decorative facade in the proposed new-build to create a stronger architectural reference between the proposed new build and the original streetscape and context.

We are disappointed that the existing building at the corner of Sylvan Place and Rillbank Crescent is proposed for demolition. We would again urge consideration of its retention or façade retention and/or the reuse of design features in-situ if at all feasible.

In Rillbank Terrace, CUDG members expressed reservations about the amount of student amenity space and communal garden space/parking space that is proposed. But, CUDG members understand that in terms of landscaping, across the site more generally, this has still to be designed in detail.

The proposed affordable housing will be in one block. We would generally promote the dispersal of social housing across a development site where this is possible.

The re-purposed RHSC facade at Rillbank Terrace, as currently proposed, will have a considerable amount of glass and modern cladding. CUDG members did not feel that this material finishing was sympathetic to the other existing and proposed architectural elements of the street.

CUDG members expressed regret that it has not proved possible to remove parking entirely from the front quadrangle of the RHSC.

Sympathetic landscaping will lessen the visual impact of parking and can create a sense of ‘arrival’ at the entrance to the repurposed RHSC. We would urge consideration of a one-way access/exit to the new parking area. The garden area may be a suitable location of ‘memorials’ relocated from the RHSC.

Finally, we strongly urge the recycling and reuse of stonework that will result from the demolition process.

Further Details Here

Back to Listings

Grain Silo in Imperial Dock, Leith

Posted on: May 6, 2011

Our considered and detailed objection to the proposed demolition of the listed grain silo building in Leith’s Imperial Dock

Our considered and detailed objection to the proposed demolition of the listed grain silo building in Leith’s Imperial Dock

Cockburn Response

The Association has studied the plans for the above proposals and wishes to make the following comments.

We have commented thoroughly on this building’s owner’s Section 36 Application to build a Renewable Energy Plant on this site under the Electricity Act 1989. The outcome of that application for a ‘deemed planning permission’ under Section 57(2) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) from the Scottish Ministers is awaited and may be some time off. In the meantime it is uncertain whether the proposed biomass plant will be granted permission and, in a rapidly changing energy market with the impact of subsidy an essential component of all waste energy, whether it will still be economically viable. It is therefore too soon to consider a demolition of this unusual Category ‘B’ listed building citing the proposed biomass plant as a reason for demolition.

Though a distribution building, the grain silo is an important relic from Scotland’s recent industrial past and one of a limited number of survivors of such buildings around the world. It is noted for its intact nature, completeness and vast size. However any scheme to preserve the building would do so from the point of view of its cultural significance for future generations, which can be conveyed to a large extent without conserving the whole building.

Similarly, the argument that the building cannot find a new use and that this warrants not advertising it under the SHEP charter because of its location in a working port, and the limitations imposed by the International Ship and Port Security Code is spurious. Forth Ports has claimed since the early 1980s that this part of the Port of Leith was surplus to commercial requirements and being wound down.

Various masterplans and planning permissions exist relating to the full redevelopment of this area over the coming decades. The grain silo could form a unique and very characterful component of any such redevelopment.

We therefore think that the first priority should be repair and stabilisation of the building to prevent further deterioration, a duty which is implicit on the current owner through the listing procedure.

We are firmly opposed to the granting of permission for the demolition of a listed building such as this which is the last of its type in Scotland, where the clear and agreed procedures for dealing with alternative uses for the building so as to prevent demolition have not been followed.

We therefore wish to object to this application.

 

Further Details Here

Back to Listings