Old Town Community Council Assessment of Application 15/04445/FUL Proposed India Buildings Virgin Hotel, and the case for revocation of planning consent under Section 65 of the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, in the context of other related ‘developments’ and concern regarding ‘over-tourism’, the cumulative impact of which threatens Edinburgh's World Heritage status. May 2019 “I would like to express the World Heritage Centre's strong concerns about the state of urban conservation in Edinburgh in general... related to urban development within the boundaries of the World Heritage property, its buffer zone and the surrounding area... The general development vision for the City at the local and national level lacks an integration of heritage values, and the process is weak as a result. At the level of local planning consent, development projects are being approved without due consideration of heritage values and conservation, inc- luding a lack of Heritage Impact Assessments, resulting in negative impacts. The quantity and pervasiveness of development projects being pursued without due consideration for conservation is deeply worrying." - Mechtild Rossler, UNESCO Director of World Heritage (Dec 2015) “We need to recognise that there has been a breakdown in trust between the residents of Edinburgh and their elected representatives on the Council. That relationship needs to be repaired. We pledge to be a council that does things ‘with people’ rather than ‘to people’. This is a council that will listen to and work with local people, a council where cooperation, fairness, accountability and responsibility really matter . There needs to be strong process for looking at the quality of how the Council has reached decisions so that there is genuine scrutiny and questioning of actions it has taken. The city will be able to JUDGE the council against this PROMISE.” - City of Edinburgh Council (2012 - 2017) “Over the centuries architects, builders and developers have created the stunning city we have today. A city with two World Heritage sites that consistently ranks as one of the best places in the UK to live. The task facing us now is to ensure that future developers reflect on the nature of the city and design with that enduring quality in mind. Some recent developments have failed to grasp this challenge resulting in bland, universal architecture… this is something we need to address. JUST GOOD ENOUGH WILL NO LONGER BE GOOD ENOUGH. We need to create developments that we are proud of. To achieve this we must all work with the same ambition. Councillors, planning officers and developers must all have the same aims for the City: to raise the bar, create great places and match the quality of our predecessors.” - City of Edinburgh Council Design Guidance (2017) Your City, Your Council, Your Say: Think Global, Act Local: Let There Be Light! Proposed India Buildings hotel (with model of original plans above), extending from Victoria Street to Cowgate, on public ‘Common Good Land’ otherwise reserved for over 100 years to extend Edinburgh Central Library, to honour the aspirations of founder Andrew Carnegie. Page 2 Introduction As a cradle of The Enlightenment set amidst a landscape of seven majestic hills, Edinburgh, Edina, Athena o’the North, has been an enduring inspiration to admirers throughout the ages, secure in the hands of faithful guardians. Today the City is enshrined by the international community for her 'Outstanding Universal Value', which even the City Council’s bin lorries have had the ironic wit to recognise with the proclamation: ‘Keep Edinburgh, Edenburgh’! Yet in taking a seat among the most beautiful cities in the World, besides millions of marvelling tourists, Edinburgh has inevitably drawn the attention, for better or worse, of global market forces keen to inject capital into the City in order to ultimately extract wealth. Had he a crystal ball to see beyond The Age of Enlightenment, Adam Smith, frequent visitor from o’re The Forth, would surely have recognised as ‘Father of Economics and The Wealth of Nations’ the pit falls of that which has euphemistically come to be known as 'Foreign Direct Investment' (FDI) in this speculative era of post-imperial globalisation. For seemingly when the glove is removed from this hidden hand behind the veil of the democratic state, FDI ultimately favours weak obsequious governance in seeking to secure maximum return on invested capital. While we’re supposedly “all in this together”, suffering the protracted imposition of austerity, having bailed out the banks following reckless property speculation in the global marketplace which precipitated the financial collapse of 2008, the rich continue to get richer speculating on assets filched from the financially debilitated public sector. With masterful sophistry, promising economic growth and provision of employment, such predatory, fiscal stimulation, associated with the discredited ideology of endless economic growth on a finite planet, is provocatively described by leading comment- ators as ‘zombie capitalism’, and further underscored by the poignant insight of another posthumous Adams: “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt”. - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America Back in Edinburgh the expression “Think Global, Act Local”, attributed to town planner Patrick Geddes, reminds public servants of the wisdom of the ages when passing through the doors of the Council’s offices at Waverley Court; a building which set the City in motion on an inauspicious course, whose current bill of health, now billions in debt, is testament to the power of red ink... Following a slew of costly blunders relating to ill advised, ill conceived and ill fated infrastructure projects, which possibly suggest even deliberate interference, Edinburgh Council has evidently become weak and obsequious. Embedded in the mortar, from the rot of ‘planned obsolescence’, the feebleness of our modern constitution manifests in ‘architectural wallpaper’ of new build public institutions, privately owned and seemingly unfit for purpose, except to further ingratiate the City’s woes. From World Heritage and Enlightenment to an age of false truth trumpery, what better case of a fall from grace than collapsing school wall masonry, revealing the store of value we place in our children’s future. As the bells of betrayal ring out from Turnhouse to York Place, sending shivers to the shores of Newhaven, elected guardians, guided by unelected and unaccountable ‘experts’, blindly dig the City’s fate into deeper holes; while aspiring McGonagall’s, teasing vitriol from the cracks and blood from tracks, note that ‘tram’ rhymes with ‘sham’! In what now appears the most desperate act to salvage the situation, Edinburgh Council has struck a new low and dug up the City’s chest of family silver and gold, and without any public consultation to discuss alternative options offered up a tempting treasure trove of speculative marvels for the appetite of FDI. From priceless greenbelt, inner city brown and greenfield, to premium World Heritage listed buildings... the Council has even thrown in a national monument for extra good measure in the guise of the former Royal High School. Reflecting on the possessor’s maxim ‘location, location, location’, the discerning global property speculator, surveying the City from Salisbury Crags, while drooling over Thomas Hamilton’s jewel, will be aware that among the Council’s portfolio of prized austerity-busting real estate booty the aforesaid ‘surplus’ Royal High School belongs to the exclusive ‘Edinburgh 12 Initiative’. Abandoning Ethical Standards and pledges to citizenry promising “cooperation, fairness, accountability and responsibility”, the success of this speculative bonanza attests to the dedication of a fawning Council keen to ensure the satisfaction of private interests, even to the point of political suicide and civic ruination. The ghostly father figure of Economics turns in his grave with the betrayal of Edina’s golden goose goosed, reminding those who care to listen of the ultimate ‘fait accompli’: “As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce”. Having crashed the global financial system through property speculation, the perpetrators of this crime have returned to reap the rewards, and with a planning system rigged with a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable economic development’ and strong armed with developers rights of appeal, conditions are ripe for a perfect storm, as evidenced by the recent ungodly, and purportedly illegal, desecration of South St Andrews Square (see Appendix F). In spite of her laurels and vision for 2050, the heart of Edina, Auld Reekie, is now in a critical condition, strangled by ‘over-tourism’ and the associated pressure of speculative ‘development’, including the impact of the trendy new so called ‘collaborative sharing gig’ economy, in which hundreds of homes have been gutted and turned into businesses, further catering to the tourist industry. Those remaining residents of this ancient neighbourhood feel abandoned by a Council, who having asked to be judged, has so explicitly failed in its primary duty to serve the public’s best interest. Page 3 Proposed India Buildings Hotel Having reached this crisis, of the recent ‘developments’ in the Old Town perhaps most heinous of all is the proposed India Buildings Virgin Hotel, one of the ‘Edinburgh 12’, earmarked to be built on land otherwise long set aside to benefit Edinburgh Central Library, key cultural asset integral to Edinburgh’s esteemed title as the World’s 1st City of Literature. With no public consultation, the decision of the Council to dispose of the public land in question (Cowgate gap site, comprising of Common Good land), fundamentally compromises the ability of the Library to “grow in usefulness” and “provide the services expected of the principal library for a capital city in the 21st century”; including meeting statutory requirements for disability access and fire safety.