Thor's Tipi given thumbs-up by Edinburgh planners

Edinburgh councillors have approved plans for a festive bar to return to Waverley Mall for Christmas, despite uncertainty surrounding coronavirus restrictions.
How Thor's tipi will lookHow Thor's tipi will look
How Thor's tipi will look

Thor’s Tipi, which is operated by Leeds-based tipi business Papakata and puts on yearly events in York, Leeds, Sheffield and Lincoln, has again applied to planners to return to the roof of Waverley Mall for winter 2020.

The temporary development will feature a single canvas six-metre-high tipi tent, housing a bar area with external and internal seating, as well a food truck and festive lighting and decorations.

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Earlier plans for the site were much larger in scale, including a large transparent marquee, an outdoor bar structure, food trucks and seating to the north west, but these plans were shelved by the organisers.

The entrance to Thor's tipiThe entrance to Thor's tipi
The entrance to Thor's tipi

Plans for live music to be played in the tent have also been removed from the application, and instead background music will be played from an amplification system.

Last year, the event ran for 51 days and according to the organisers hired 30 local staff with a total payroll of £35,000, and this year, organisers plan to double the number of staff.

The plans have attracted eleven letters of objection, which mostly raised concerns over increased competition.

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One objector, whose name has been redacted by the council, wrote: “This proposal is completely out of character for the conservation area.

“The application claims that a tipi, some food trucks and festoon lighting will be sympathetic to Edinburgh's world heritage site surroundings, I can't imagine why someone would tell such a whopping fib.

“This low cost, low standard pop up will represent huge competition to the all year round bars and related businesses who have much higher standards and fixed costs.

“We, the people and the city council, should be supporting local businesses. Our city would be much less interesting and attractive without them.”

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The Cockburn Association, which works to protect Edinbiurgh’s heritage and architecture, also lodged an objection, which reads: “In our view this proposal represents unfair competition for local businesses.

“At a time when many long established Edinburgh businesses are struggling to survive financially a pop-up bar and events space, which will not have to meet the same costs, health and safety standards nor the same facilities management regime of similar, long-standing business, is simply unacceptable.”

Now, councillors sitting on Edinburgh City Council’s development management sub-committee have rubber stamped the proposals.

Speaking at the meeting, Corstorphine and Murrayfield councillor Frank Ross, SNP, asked: “Just to identify whether there are any planning implications for the Scottish government’s current covid restrictions, because obviously things like background music aren’t allowed at the time, and would this be regarded as an outdoor or indoor facility, with regards to food and alcohol?”

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In response, planning officer Lynn McMenemy told councillors that coronavirus restrictions are not a factor in planning considerations, and councillors were instructed to make their decision based purely on planning guidelines.

City Centre councillor Joanne Mowat, Conservatives, said: “All those concerns will be dealt with by licensing and licensing restrictions.

“I didn’t decide to call this forward simply because it is temporary - any impact on the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage Site would be temporary - and it doesn’t have a permanent impact.

“If there is to be a festive season, and if there is to be activity happening, then I think anything that would happen here would be controlled under licensing so I felt that actually, given the temporary nature of this, it would really fall under different legislation to control this.

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“I’m reasonably relaxed about this, as one of the local councillors, as all of these issues will be addressed elsewhere.”

Pentland Hills councillor, and convener of the committee, Neil Gardiner, SNP, added: “I agree that because this is a short duration, it’s a temporary tent and it’s further away from Waverley Bridge than it has been in previous years, where it can seem quite dramatic and not in a positive sense.

“This is more in the middle of the site, so its impact will be a lot less, and in moving this, the operators and the council will have to take cognisance of the pandemic, and it may be that in the end this doesn’t go ahead.

“I don’t know but public health triumphs everything else right now, and quite rightly, but if it does then it will be nice to have some Christmas activity.”

Joseph Anderson, Local Democracy Reporting Service

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