RESIDENTS of a charming Edinburgh Street have been left livid after an “appalling” u-turn by a property developer who promised to convert a former hotel on Claremont Crescent into permanent housing.
The owners of the Claremont Hotel instead decided to convert the building into a block of short-term let flats instead.
Council officers have recommended that the plans be approved at a meeting on Wednesday, but “dismayed” locals are appealing to councillors to pause a decision on the development.
45 objections have been lodged with the council regarding the plans, with a local MSP, the Cockburn Association – Edinburgh’s civic trust – and the New Town and Broughton Community Council all speaking out against the revised plans.
Claremont Crescent (pictured above), could now see an influx of short-term visitors (C) Google
S1 Developments, who own and are developing the property pivoted the development after winning planning approval, claiming that there was no market for the flats as residential properties.
Locals objecting to the plans drew attention to the “breach of trust” by developers, saying they had “undermined the integrity of the planning system”.
Amanda Young, who lives on the crescent, said: “The developer secured planning consent for long-term residential homes on the basis this would address Edinburgh’s housing shortage.
“Now, with works underway for over a year, they are seeking to change the use to short-term serviced apartments, undermining the entire premise on which consent was granted.”
Ms Young added: “Unmanned short term lets will have a significant negative impact on a safe, quiet, family-focused, close-knit community.
“We all support new residences being built but not to be used as short lets which will fundamentally change the nature of our crescent.”
Unlike the previous hotel, the block of short-term let flats will not be monitored or staffed, allowing developers to reap the financial benefits of having transient tenants while avoiding costly hotel overheads.
Another resident said many locals felt “blindsided” by S1’s revised plans. “The now very obvious ‘bait and switch’ technique they’re using to change permission to STL is appalling,” said another, in anonymised responses. “It’s putting profit before community and will be nothing but disruptive to the area.”
The crescent loops around shared garden, where residents meet every Friday.
Residents had been looking forward to welcoming new permanent residents to the community after the closure of the hotel in 2023.
These hopes have now been thwarted, however, and new transient visitors will be introduced.
James Garry, assistant director of the Cockburn Association urged councillors to refuse consent for short-term lets.
He said he considered the proposal “unacceptable in principle and detrimental to the long-term sustainability and character of the New Town.”
The local constituency MSP, Ben Macpherson, said:“This proposed development seems at odds with the character of the neighbourhood and the clear need in the city for more, permanent housing for residents. I am sympathetic to concerns that my constituents have raised about these proposals, and that high density occupancy in commercial short-term lets could detrimentally impact the area, particularly the quality of life of those living on and around the street.”
Richard Price of the New Town and Broughton Community Council said he was “surprised and disappointed” to see the application switched from residential to STL properties.
He added local residents were “understandably extremely annoyed and frustrated and opposed to this late proposed change of use and rue the support that they (had) given to the developers.”
Former Times journalist, Mike Wade, 65, has also spoken out against the proposals, describing the development to Edinburgh Live as an “absolute disaster”.
Claremont Crescent was designed by William Burn, the architect of Edinburgh Academy and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and constructed in the 1820s.
Famous past residents include Eduardo Paolozzi, the artist, and Stuart Sutcliffe, the “fifth Beatle”, while one property in the Crescent is said to have been a base for Arthur Scargill, the president of the NUM, during the 1984-85 miner’s strike.
Edinburgh Council’s Development Management Sub-Committee will meet on Wednesday to vote on the plans.
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