Actress joins fight to rescue city’s own river cafe
Film star Mills says loss of Earthy eaterie would be sad for capital
CAMPAIGNERS backed by stage and screen star Hayley Mills are to challenge an apparently terminal turn in the battle to save a popular eaterie that overlooks an urban beauty spot in Edinburgh.
The Save 1-6 Canonmills Bridge campaigners said they will continue to fight moves to replace the single-storey building that has Earthy as its tenant with flats and a restaurant space after a planning document posted online showed a key tenet of the opponents’ case had fallen.
One aspect of the campaigners’ challenge was that the developer Glovart Investments had missed a three-year deadline to start work on-site that began when planning permission for the development was granted in 2013.
It is claimed that allowing vehicle access and a dropped kerb has been cited as being enough work done to amount to redevelopment beginning.
The campaigners said they still believe the work is not enough to be considered as such and will raise a further challenge.
The document describing the “commencement of development” states: “While the council is entitled to seek to revoke extant planning permission and conservation area consent, it is unlikely that consent for this will be obtained from Scottish ministers and even if it is compensation will be very expensive.
“In conclusion, the developer is entitled to continue with the implementation permission.”
It read: “Agents acting on behalf of the applicant have submitted information as part of their notification of commencement of material operations that the vehicular of the planning access was formed on June 10, 2013 and that the kerb was dropped on May7,2016.
“Council officers initial view was that on the balance of probabilities that a material operation had been carried out, prior to consent expiring, meaning that the express grant of planning permission is capable of implementation.”
The campaigners said in a statement they are disappointed but added: “We question the interpretation of the legislation and won’t let this drop. In this, and in other ways, we are continuing to push for a better outcome for the site. “We remain hopeful.” Ms Mills,70, a friend of one of the campaigners, said that “the loss would be a sad one for the local community and part of Edinburgh city”.
Resident Colin Wright said: “Given it is now nearly four years since planning permission was controversially granted it seems odd that this development is still being considered as live.”
The campaign gained the support of 7,000 people and took their protest to the city council chambers.
Edinburgh City Council rejected a separate application to demolish the building but this was overturned on appeal at Holyrood.
The case went to the Scottish Government’s planning reporter who said last year: “At present it is particularly well presented at street level by its current occupiers as an organic food grocers and restaurant and is clearly valued by the local community.
“However, I do not consider that its current occupation and use is relevant to the question of the intrinsic value of the building itself to the special interest of the conservation area.”
The reporter said: “It is essentially a simple and functional mid 19th century small scale mainly brick built industrial building, which appears to have served the area as shops throughout most of its existence. It has been the subject of various ad hoc adaptations throughout its life and is now built of mixed materials.”
The campaigners said there had been a move to revise the existing planning permission at Canonmills Bridge late last year. The main changes included the relocation of entrances, access stairs and ramp with the ground floor altered to single unit instead of two. AT LEAST 45 lochs have been contaminated by toxic pesticides from 70 fish farms, according to new figures.
The chemicals used to kill sea lice found in caged salmon have breached safety limits more than 100 times in the past 10 years, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) found.
The Sunday Herald said they have been discharged by farms operated by seven companies.
Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland, which represents anglers, is to refer the the incidents involving a chemical, named as emamectin, to the European Commission as a possible breach of European law.
Spokesman Guy LinleyAdams told the newspaper: “It appears that Sepa has been looking the other way and allowing excessive treatment chemicals to be used, which will have damaged the ecology of the sea lochs.”
The firms named as responsible for the leaks include Marine Harvest, Scottish Sea Farms, The Scottish Salmon Company and Grieg Seafood Shetland. The main pesticide detected was emamectin benzoate, which is described as toxic to birds, mammals, fish and other “aquatic organisms” on the seabed.
Vyvyan Howard, an emeritus professor of toxicology at Ulster University said: “The main concern would be the long-term, low-dose effects.”
Dr Richard Luxmoore, a senior adviser to The National Trust for Scotland, said: The environmental standards have been put there for a good reason. It is highly worrying that they have been breached so many times.”
A Sepa spokesman said contamination near salmon cages was unlikely to spread a significant distance.