Be careful what you wish for at Waverley Market - Kevin Buckle

News close to home this week in that the application to extend the life of the drinking establishments on the roof of Waverley Market had been refused.

While the owners Moorgarth have planning permission to build a single-storey building on the roof clearly now is not the time to be embarking on such a plan.

I know to my cost from the drilling noise that some preliminary work has been done to comply with the need to have started the work but the application to make the current set-up more permanent for the next three years was refused by council officers under delegation.

There is a clue in this itself in that this delegation was only possible because there had been so few objections. Despite this, though, officers found a number of reasons for refusing the application with its negative impact on the area being highlighted.

The proposed permanent building work at Waveley Marked sees the pavement in front of the roof widened to double its size

Now I’m not a huge fan of the Festival Village myself as it hides the fact there is a shopping centre below but one thing I can’t deny is that it has had a positive impact on the area in that before it appeared the roof was a playground for older children misbehaving in a wide variety of ways and certainly the police were constantly on call to deal with incidents and are far happier with the current situation.

I would witness the various goings-on while waiting for my bus and things only got more unruly later in the night. No doubt there will be an appeal and certainly there are reasons for concern but nothing that couldn’t be sorted out by sensible discussion.

One big plus in the proposed permanent building work is that the pavement in front of the roof will be widened to double its size. With so many people at the bus stops regularly clogging up the pavement already the passengers leaving the station via the Waverley Steps then face an uphill battle to turn left.

Many are dragging cases behind them and some will then stop to see what buses are available and a bad situation just gets worse.

While there were concerns expressed about even further congestion caused by those entering the Festival Village this is really a minor issue in comparison.

While the current planning application does nothing to address these issues and three years is a long time for these problems to continue surely it is possible to alleviate the present situation by carrying out some minor works now.

Given Moorgarth have a blank canvas to work with in terms of the long-term planning they have in place and the undoubted demand that has been shown for what is currently on offer I see no reason why the current set-up cannot be morphed into the long-term plans with maybe more family-friendly eating establishments taking on the available units but also having the kind of offer currently available at night.