Edinburgh cafe to be built in new walled garden in Pilton after plans approved
A cafe is set to be built in a new walled garden in Pilton after the plans were approved by the council’s planning department.
The Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT) submitted plans in September for a proposed café to sit alongside wider improvement and enhancement works to the former play area at West Pilton Park, which has been out of use since 2019.
Planning permission was previously obtained in December, 2024 for park-wide enhancements, including reference to a future café which has now been approved in this separate application.
The single-storey cafe will have a pitched roof and be operated by catering social enterprise Scran Academy. The public toilets part of the project will be managed by the City of Edinburgh Council.
A growers’ area associated with the project will come under the stewardship of an established local growers group, Fresh Start.
Although planners had an issue with the new cafe not being in a defined centre, relating to Policy Re 10 (Entertainment, leisure and café/restaurant developments in other locations), the cafe proposals were still approved, albeit with six conditions added to approval.
Approving the proposals on January 21, the council’s chief planning officer David Givan said: “The proposals do not comply with criteria (a) of Policy Re 10 in the LDP.
“The proposals, however, are part of wider improvements to the park which is a significant material consideration in terms of local living and 20-minutes neighbourhood to improve community resilience and to reduce inequalities.
“It would therefore be unreasonable to refuse the application on this ground. Subject to conditions to restrict its use, hours of operations and ventilation system, the proposals would comply with the other policy provisions the LDP and NPF 4.
“The development design and layout are acceptable, and neighbouring amenity will not be adversely affected.
“The sustainability of the proposal is acceptable in terms of its measures to both mitigate and future proof the building against the effects of climate change. There are no material considerations that would outweigh this.”
In the planning documents, the applicant said of the proposals: “The café building, a pavilion by necessity, will have a back-of house, the visual servicing ‘clutter’ of which can sit comfortably within a working walled garden.
“The café building is designed as a modest single-storey structure. A pitched roof offers a visually recognisable form, provides good drainage, discourages anti-social roof access, and allows the extent of the building to be legible, seen from within the park as part of the walled garden composition.
“The growers’ area is perfectly suited to a walled garden environment in terms of design aesthetic, practical enclosure and security, and shelter.
“The walled garden concept allows for a cluster of several facilities to be linked by the common device of the surrounding wall, in this case: café, public toilets and growers’ container unit.”
The café building will also include a new park officer base, a privately-funded new role to have a presence across the whole new West Pilton Park. They will run health, wellbeing, nature, and horticultural groups across the park.
The applicant now has three years to begin work on the new cafe in the already approved walled garden, with the application receiving no public comments online.
Among the conditions attached to approval were that tree protection measures must be implemented, and the hours of operation shall be restricted to 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
While, the ventilation system must be capable of achieving 30 air changes an hour to ensure no cooking odours escape, and a detailed specification, including trade names where appropriate, of all the proposed external materials shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the planning authority before work is commenced on site.
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