Plans to extend Edinburgh’s Gyle shopping centre with new food court and a cinema rejected

Plans to extend the Gyle included new retail units, a cinema and a revamped food court but have been rejected

Concerns were raised over transport links and the provision for pedestrians, bus users and cyclists.

Plans for a major extension of the Gyle shopping centre including a cinema, a revamped food court and new retail and leisure units have been rejected.

The proposed extension would be built on part of the current car park, resulting in the loss of 334 parking spaces and the relocation of the current transport hub away from the centre’s main entrance.

Concerns were raised over transport links and the provision for pedestrians, bus users and cyclists.

“This proposal does not comply with a range of policies in the local plan. Moving the bus stances further away is not good, there is also the opportunity to provide a protected cycleway which benefit both cyclists and those parking their cars,” said Planning Convener Neil Gardiner.

"It couldn’t be confirmed if other town centres had been thoroughly assessed as required in the local development plan. Without this required information or properly addressing transport requirements in the plan it wasn’t possible to support this particular application. This is something worth getting right for Edinburgh.”

Conservative Planning Spokesperson Jo Mowat voted to approve the plans, citing the council’s limited control over the specifics of the development.

“There’s already 5,000 square metres of retail factored into the plan, and in some ways once you have that high level piece of planning there you're arguing about details, because we can't control what goes on in someone else's car park,” she said.

“I didn’t think we had grounds to refuse it, because the principle of the additional facilities has been agreed and we have very little control because that’s private land.

“There was also a lot of discussion about cycle ways and cycle lanes, but actually we can’t control that. You can’t really turn down an application because of things you can’t control.”

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