First Edinburgh JDW decision; Council says no

The planning application for Jimmy Chung’s on Waverley bridge is still open, however

About six weeks ago, I wrote this post about the four proposed JD Wetherspoon venues in Edinburgh, which had been lodged with Edinburgh City Council relating to the following venues:-

St John’s Church – 9 Victoria Street. Ref-14/03524/FUL (lodged 01/09/14),
Jimmy Chung’s – Waverly Bridge. Ref-14/03514/FUL (lodged 01/09/14),
HMV Picture House – Lothian Rd. Ref-14/02936/FUL (lodged 21/07/14),
Empire Bingo hall – Nicholson Street. Ref-14/01864/FUL (lodged 13/05/14)

This weekend just gone, one of those was decided upon. The latter proposal, to turn the old Empire Bingo Hall on Nicholson Street into a JD Wetherspoon, was rejected by the Council, in a ruling which stated:

The proposals do not comply with the development plan and non-statutory guidelines and would have an adverse impact on residential amenity…the change of use to a public house would, given inadequate means of noise mitigation and ventilation to the premises, lead to an unacceptable increase in noise, odours and disturbance having a material detrimental effect on the living conditions for nearby residents both above and adjoining the application premises.

Expanding on this, the Council judged that although external changes to the building would be minor – ‘the two neon BINGO signs are to be removed’ – two significant issues remain. Firstly, the ventilation of the kitchen. The proposed filtration system was deemed ‘unacceptable’, due to it being included in the planning submission (and therefore being inappropriate as a planning issue), and also exiting the building at low-level, rather than on the roof.

The second issue, which was certainly expected, was the impact on local residents. As per the planning procedure, comments had been taken, and objections were received from such luminaries as the nearby Royal College of Surgeons, Sarah Boyack (recently announced as standing for the leadership of the Scottish Labour party) and Sheila Gilmore MP, along with local councillors; only one comment came in actually supporting the proposal.

This in itself was probably enough to kill off the Nicholson St JD Wetherspoon idea; but these received letters of contention indicated a common theme – the ‘area of restriction’ issue. This principal, when expounded upon, reads like it would be practically impossible to open a bar anyway, under any circumstances:-

The site also stands within a defined ‘area of restriction’, as identified within the ‘Guidance for Businesses’. Within such areas, in conjunction with policy Ret 12, the presumption is against new public houses; especially where they would lead to an unacceptable increase in on-street activity or anti-social behaviour or in an area where there is an excessive concentration of such uses to the detriment of living conditions for nearby residents.

If this kind of concentrated effort is enough to see off JDW on the basis of ten public comments, one can only imagine what the 140 comments that have been lodged on the HMV Picture House proposal will lead to. JD Wetherspoon pubs really do divide opinions; and it seems that where Edinburgh is concerned, the opinions of those that have some degree of influence are largely in the negative. Time will tell as to how the other three submissions are judged (all are still currently pending) – but what started out as maybe a ‘1 out of 4’ scenario for ‘spoons, could well end up leaving them empty-handed; well, aside from their existing five pubs already in the city…

The Empire Bingo Hall site on Nicholson Street may not becoming a JD Wetherspoon, but neither is it being mothballed. At the same time as the council refused JDW’s application, they granted one from 2013 from the people behind, amongst other things, New Empire Bingo Ltd, to use the premises as a ‘dance hall or discotheque’, as has been suggested before.