Planners puzzled by Evening News article

Over the weekend, lot's of people were interested to read this dramatic article from the Evening News, claiming that Forth Ports were about to spring 'a surprise new plan' on the council for Leith Harbour. We were too, because if you check the council planning portal, you can see that the last time revised plans were submitted was, er, on the 1st of April. So, we phoned the planning department and they confirmed that they were as bemused as we were about the Evening News article. They have no knowledge of any new proposals.

And whilst the 26 storey hotel may not be the most appealing part of the design for most people, and we'd still like to see Leith Theatre renovated before the development of any new public venue on the docks, we pointed out in April that many of the changes are positive - they mean lower buildings, a lower density of housing and less parking spaces. These are things that local community groups called for in their response to the planning application.

Whilst the Evening News may claim that 'full details of the plans have not been announced,' we found it pretty easy to get the artists impression (above) of what the proposal would look like straight off the developers website - tall hotel and 6000 seater venue included. All the other documents are on the council planning portal here:

http://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/portal/submissions.do?action=ViewPublicCaseDetails&applicationRef=08/04232/OUT

Update on June 11, 2010 by Ally

Today, we received this letter from Forth Ports, confirming that the development plans have not been 'ripped up,' despite claims in the Evening News to the contrary.