Warehouse was where houses will be

Dear Spurtle 

I write regarding the comments in Issue 247 and online [3.11.15] about the proposed development in the car park on Broughton Street Lane. 

I have been a Forth Street resident for 26 years and live in a basement flat. I have fought the proposals for a development here for a decade or more. My flat and garden will lose most of their natural light if the flats are built. However, I do not want to go over old arguments, given that the Planning Department has approved the scheme, ignoring its own Guidelines for access to light and minimum distance between properties to do so. 

I do need to point out an inaccuracy in your comments. By the 1980s, the Georgian houses at my end of Forth Street were no longer residential and were used by a number of businesses. That was when there was a large warehouse in the car park.

Then the properties were converted back to residential homes and the block in the car park was demolished. I can only presume this was done to give the homes privacy and light. Originally, the car park was part of the Forth Street houses’ gardens.

Janice Donaldson

(Forth Street)

[Detail above from Ordnance Survey, 1852]

[Spurtle was trying to suggest that – given some recent Planning decisions in Edinburgh – the consented scheme in this particular case could have been a lot worse. Janice Donaldson tells us that exploratory holes have been dug in the car park by staff from St Andrews-based Headon Developments. Work may begin in the Spring, but we find no mention of the project on their website.]