Biomass plans change: A retrograde step?

Greener Leith has just received a letter from Forth Energy, advising of a modification of the site boundary, that, according to them allows for a 'better layout of the proposed plant on the site'. The plant now has an 'East-West' axis, extending further East along the Edinburgh Dock, whilst the extent of the Northern Boundary is reduced. You can see the new plan in the map below (and you can see the original plan here).

Is this significant? Well, yes and no. We already know the Forth Ports seem entirely comfortable ignoring their own Masterplan with this proposal. However, whilst we haven't been given any information about the arrangement of buildings on the new site, it seems more likely that this new arrangement will cut across at least one of the much vaunted 'view corridors' that were said to provide the structure to the previous Masterplan. They were also put in place to preserve key views in and out of the World Heritage Site in the centre of town, and were based on an Edinburgh Skyline study undertaken in 2007. You can see an illustration the view corridors below.

You may recall that UNESCO conducted an investigation last year into the management of the Edinburgh World Heritage site. In their report it says: 

"The mission specifically considered that the skylines study (Colvin & Moggridge) was an important and proactive tool to protect important views...and to ensure the visual integrity of the World Heritage property and its skyline. This tool can be used to assess any new developments and specifically high-rise buildings in the future." 

It would be interesting to get the UNESCO view (if you'll pardon the pun) on this latest change. One things for sure, it doesn't do anything to lessen the visual impact of the proposals.

Comments

[Jethro Sheppard]

From what I can see, the proposed site (old and new) include the site of the old cement silo building which, as far as I know, is protected. In the Masterplan, this building is shown as left standing, for "Cultural/Public" use. How they're going to preserve that enormous monolith in the middle of a powerplant, I'm not sure....

[Bob]

The building you're refering to is the Grain Elevator and it's category B Listed. Presumably Forth Ports will have to show that conversion is economically unviable to obtain consent for demolition. It's a striking piece of industrial architecture but I've no if the interior lends itself to conversion. Could it hold the Anthony D'Offay collection?

[Ally]

Forth Energy say it isn't economic to convert the building to another use, because it's largely made up of a series of vertical concrete silos.