Longstone Community Council find themselves opposing a planning application for housing in their area, but the body actually wants more housing in their area.
The reason that they brought a deputation the Development Management Sub-Committee on Wednesday was to ask that the council impose an extra condition on any permission to house builders Smarts for the development to proceed. The community council want a pedestrian bridge over the Water of Leith included in the planning permission.
This is where Bonnie Prince Charlie camped – on the former Booker site – and the community council hopes that street naming might be extended to any new structure.
The community council says this would improve the “permeability” of the new housing development – which really means that anyone could find their way through the new housing on foot or bike by using a new bridge. It would increase the opportunities for active travel and would prevent Longstone from being cut off.
Alan Gordon, Treasurer of the Community Council delivered part of the deputation to the council’s Development Management Sub-Committee. He explained that the crossing is a safeguarded route connecting cyclists and pedestrians shown in the Local Development Plan, but the application is silent except to provide a path up to, but not across the Water of Leith.
He said: “Longstone is very constrained by the Murray Burn, and the Water of Leith forms a pretty big barrier of between a mile and a mile and a half along the edge of the community. Then there is the Calder Road and other roads on the other side. We rely on connectivity and permeability to reach most of our services. Many folks in our community, for example, are registered with the GP practice in Slateford Medical Practice but have to drive to get there.”
Their opposition has been longstanding, and they first started talking about the need for a bridge when Sainsburys on Inglis Green Road was approved – when permission could at that time have included a bridge. The community council say that the city council owns land on one side of the river.
Listen here to what the Community Council want.
Alan continued: “All our walks locally tend to be linear. A new bridge would tick so many boxes and is universally popular. We believe the National Planning Framework 4 will give the council more confidence to do this where traditionally in the past if they had imposed a bridge as a planning condition they might have found themselves being challenged by The Scottish Government.”
The papers for the committee meeting are here and the property in question is 22 Inglis Green Road.
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