Another fine day. More crowds in St Andrew Square Garden enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the grass. Not the gurgling bog but the warm, soft, scented, easy-on-the-eye grass.
On 12 April this year, we reported an enquiry by a member of the public to City of Edinburgh Council about a possible breach of planning conditions in St Andrew Square Garden (Ref. 16/00156/ECOND). It concerned the fact that the Garden had not been fully restored within the period allotted for this purpose after Hogmanay, and was instead a barren expanse of mud.
Yesterday, a report about CEC’s investigation of this matter was published online (see pdf at foot of this page). Part of that report reads:
The enquiry refers to […] the non compliance with condition 2 relating to application 14/03914/FUL with specific concerns relating to the gardens, kerbs and footways not being returned to their condition prior to the occupation of the event.
As this is a breach of planning control, this matter has been passed to Essential Edinburgh to arrange for the appropriate reinstatement works to be undertaken.
It is recommended that no further enforcement action is required at this time.
This is not a particularly sharp rap over the knuckles for Essential Edinburgh. And – coming 49 days after the initial enquiry – it has done absolutely nothing to speed up the belated reinstatement process.
Was complaining a waste of time?
We don’t think so.
Where CEC’s response is useful is in:
- explicitly recording that a ‘breach of planning controls’ took place; Essential Edinburgh did not complete the reinstatement within the stipulated timeframe
- clarifying that it is the responsibility of Essential Edinburgh – not Underbelly or some other third party – to arrange for ‘appropriate reinstatement works’.
So, if any breaches are observed and officially recorded in this way in future, and it emerges that Essential Edinburgh will not or cannot restore the Garden according to schedule, then it seems to us that a persuasive argument can be made that use of the site for this purpose, on this scale, from November to January each year is not appropriate.
In which case, such Festive events here should cease. Merry Christmas, everyone.
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Alastair Wright Why does a member of the public need to point this out to CoEC !?? Why are they incapable of doing the simplest tasks? No sign of any consequences so no doubt it'll reoccur. Sad state our city is in, with no solution in sight.
@theSpurtle good work. Not much help for this year....but certainly worth quoting when they next gave to apply for planning permission