Edinburgh developments: New plans for student flats on vacant plot at Inglis Green Gait
Plans to build 17 student flats in the south west of the city have been submitted to Edinburgh council.
An earlier application to build student housing on the site, a vacant plot in Inglis Green Gait, was rejected in September. But new plans have now been submitted which, if given the green light, would see a 3.5 storey timber building built in the area.
The site was previously approved for residential housing in 2017.
The rooms will range in size from 18m2 to 22m2 and each will have a kitchen and bathroom. The building will also have space for bike parking and will be a 20-minute walk from Napier University’s Craiglockhart campus.
An earlier application to build student housing at the site was rejected in September with planning officers concluding the proposal would ‘have an adverse impact on canopies and roots of the trees’ and the removal of some trees had ‘no arboricultural reason to justify the loss’.
The new application outlines that 19 out of the 48 trees are required to be removed to accommodate the building and a further three trees ‘have been identified as dying.’ Plans state that 26 trees will be retained and a ‘comprehensive site-wide planting strategy’ for new trees will be undertaken to compensate for the loss.
The application states: “This planting strategy will establish to make a considerable contribution to the landscape character and quality of the local area whilst providing an attractive environment for future student residents.
“Not only will the proposed landscape strategy reinforce the existing and ageing tree structure and have a positive effect on the prevailing wooded character of the wider setting to the site, but will more than compensate for the loss of 19 trees.”
It adds: “It is strongly contended that the proposed student accommodation development provides the opportunity to significantly add to the existing landscape resource, extend green networks and maximise the Site’s potential to positively add to biodiversity net gain.”