The owners of the abandoned Northfield House Hotel on Lasswade Road have agreed that the building will be secured.
Police and fire representatives, as well as council officers, attended a meeting along with local councillor Cllr Martha Mattos Coelho.
The hotel closed before the pandemic and the building, built as a Victorian villa in the 1870s, has been lying derelict since. After a number of incidents of vandalism, there were three fires in the space of a week in the building earlier this month, with the fire service responding each time.
A planning application to demolish the hotel and build student accommodation was granted on appeal in 2022. Demolition has not yet taken place, as a programme of archaeological work is still to be carried out.
There are widespread concerns in the community about the risks posed by the vacant and now fire-damaged building, which some residents say has become a popular place for local young people to congregate, and there have been calls from the fire service, police, residents and local representatives for the building to be secured with steel panels.
Cllr Mattos Coelho said: “I’ve been pressing for this meeting since May, before the fires occurred, as have local residents. I’m happy to say that there is now agreement from the owner that the building will be properly secured to make sure that no one can enter what is now a potentially dangerous environment, and to prevent further damage by vandals. Some of that work has already been done and I’ve been assured that it will be completed by the weekend.”
Ian Murray MP has also been involved in trying to get some action on the potentially dangerous site. He said: “It’s a disgrace that the developers have left the hotel in such a way that vandals have been able to set fire to it in a dangerous manner.
“We have been working with the council, police, fire services and other agencies to have the site secured before anyone gets hurt or the building falls down.
“I’m glad to see the site has been secured after our hard work and thank all the residents involved for making sure that the site is no secured and no one will get hurt in the process.”
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