Residents appeal to developers to rethink plans for former Edinburgh RBS site

They say the layout of the scheme, which includes flats, offices and shops, would mean the living rooms of some of the new flats facing directly onto the bedrooms of existing residents.

And they are appealing to developers Ediston to adjust the design.

One resident Nikki Miller said: "We've been trying to push them to give us a bit more privacy by making it a bigger courtyard.”

There are 24 flats in a horseshoe arrangement in Eyre Place. Ms Miller said: “People on the east and west bits of the horseshoe already look across to each other, but that's 23 metres away and they're all bedrooms. But what they're going to build will be only 18 metres away and it will be living rooms. The only view for people who live in that block will be us.

“They have massive open areas throughout the rest of the scheme, so I don't understand why they've picked the one bit that actually affects existing neighbours to be the one where they put the smallest amount of distance between us.”

Ms Miller said: "They're supposed to be building an office block at the other end of the development so they could even just leave the office block next to us as it is and shift their scheme around or if not, the original plan was there would be a mirror image of our apartments so they would have a similar style, it would be further away and it would be bedrooms looking onto the courtyard.”

Ross McNulty, spokesman for Ediston, said: "We've been consulting regularly with residents at Eyre Place in addition to interested local parties, and we are fully aware of their concerns. There will be improvement in terms of daylighting and amount of visible skyline for residents in the adjacent flats, as the courtyard area will be increased and the height of the proposed building will be lower than the existing office.

"Overlooking distances are a practical issue which are considered within the design of any city-centre brownfield development."

He said the proposals complied with design guidance.

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