No straw left unclutched - John McLellan

Such fun at last week’s development management sub committee as SNP and Green councillors writhed to find a way to throw out an application for student flats in the city centre.

Vita Student’s New Waverley site on Sibbald Walk will comprise of 207 studio apartments and 60 cluster rooms and include a state-of-the-gym along with social and study spaces

The site’s not permeable, not accessible enough, there’s an issue with land ownership, it doesn’t replicate the medieval wynds... no straw was left unclutched as they tried to halt the development on Sibbald Walk, the last part of the Caltongate project around the UK Government offices in the Old Town.

When it was clear there were no planning grounds to refuse the application ─ for 267 student bedrooms, commercial unts and some town houses ─ instead they tried to delay the decision for the developers to rethink. Even when it was pointed out it had already taken too long and they could just go straight to the Scottish Government for a decision, they still voted to block permission.

No doubt the purpose is to be able to claim they have opposed student flats, but the truth is these developments have become a better option than the affordable rented homes once planned for the site because of the SNP-Green rent cap, and planning policies agreed when the SNP led the council.

The growth of purpose-built student accommodation is the creation of policies agreed by the SNP, and it’s about time their politicians, national and local, accepted responsibility for a situation of their making, not parroting nonsense about Brexit being to blame.

A clear-cut application was approved by six votes to four.