Watchdog objects to new Filmhouse
A bid to transform a public square in Edinburgh’s culture quarter by building a £60 million “temple of film” has run into trouble after the city's long-running heritage watchdog revealed it would be opposing the plans.
The Cockburn Association says allowing the new home for the Filmhouse cinema to be built in the middle of Festival Square would set an “undesirable precedent” and could pave the way for “expectation of development” of similar spaces across Edinburgh.
It has raised formal concerns with Edinburgh City Council about the future “commodification” of the square, which sits between the Usher Hall and the Sheraton Grand Hotel, amid the development, which would also become a new home for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The Cockburn has also
“questioned the need” for the development given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the hospitality sector and the global film industry. However, it supported the councilowned square being regularly used for festivals and events in future – a key proposal in the planning application.
The complex, which it is hoped will attract audiences in excess of 800,000 a year, will be up and running by 2025 if planning permission and funding can be secured.
The Cockburn wants the Centre for the Moving Image, which runs both the Filmhouse and the film festival, to instead focus on redeveloping their existing home which is adjacent to the new site.
Andrewmacleod,vice-chair of the Cockburn, said: “This development would result in a significant impact to the local areaandwouldunderminethe character and potential of an existing civic space.
"There would be a significant loss of open space, which would not be retrieved elsewhere. It would also set an undesirable precedent and create expectation of development for other open spaces. We believe strongly that the square can and should be improved, so that it could provide an excellent hard-surfaced civic space capable of hosting major events and festival activities.
"Alternatively, it could be
redesigned or ‘greened’ as a carbon/climate mitigation space to help the city meet its aspirations to be carbon-neutral by 2030.”