West Park Place PBSA
Posted on: February 13, 2025
The existing buildings are not listed but have been identified as locally significant
Address: 2C Northfield Drive Edinburgh
Proposal: Demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment of the site for purpose built student accommodation with ancillary amenity and associated cycle parking, landscaping and associated works
Reference No: 25/00070/FUL
Closing date for comments: Fri 14 Feb 2025
Determination date: Fri 14 Mar 2025
Result: Pending
Cockburn Response
This planning application involves the demolition of the existing buildings at 2 – 3 West Park Place, Edinburgh. The site will be redeveloped to construct purpose-built student accommodation, which will include ancillary amenities, cycle parking, landscaping, and other associated works. The existing buildings are not listed but have been flagged as locally significant by appropriate City of Edinburgh Council officers. There has been local interest and local objections.
The Cockburn Association objects to this application. We are not convinced that the case for the complete demolition of all the existing buildings is justified.
The height, mass, and bulk of the proposals seem excessive for such a constrained site in a heavily residential area, and there are no new accessible greenspaces or additional amenity benefits for the area’s existing community.
The application does not discuss the cumulative impact of adding additional student accommodation to an area which already has built and consented PBSA accommodation.
Additionally, while we acknowledge that most of the accommodation proposed is in cluster configurations, we would have liked to have seen a fuller discussion of how this development could be effectively and affordably reconfigured as mainstream housing if the demand for PBSA should fall in the future.