Please don’t let all my art work go to waste
Student Megan’s ongoing battle
A young artist faces losing her studio after becoming embroiled in a fight with council planners who say it sits 40cm too high.
Planning officials say it is a place “of dominating scale on decking which adds to the domineering effect which affects the visual amenity”.
But to Megan Archibald it’s a garden shed which serves as her studio, office and only workspace since lockdown stopped her attending Edinburgh University as a postgraduate who receives her Master of Fine Art degree in May.
And she said giving up the studio would mean ending her studies and she is now fighting for retrospective planning permission.
“It’s my studio, it’s my only place I have to work,” she told a meeting of West Lothian Council’s Development Management Committee.
Megan, whose work includes projects with local youth and community groups, uses the garden shed at her mum’s home in Eliburn because there’s a real shortage of artist workspace in Livingston. Refusing planning permission would be tantamount to ending her studies because she has nowhere else to work.
She told the meeting: “We read the council website and we called the council and were informed we didn’t need planning permission. We built the shed in good faith.
“I have spoken with my neighbours and I have suggested putting up a little trellis. We could have flowers or fake flowers.”
The award-winning painter and photographer – whose work featured in the 2019 annual report of the homeless charity the Bethany Christian Trust, entitled Building People Up – won support from councillors who rejected the idea of refusing retrospective planning permission for the studio.
Planning officers said that lockdown had prevented staff from visiting the garden to inspect the studio shed and its outlook. Their main complaint was that it sits atop decking and is higher than it should be by 40cm.
Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick suggested there was room for compromise.
“The studio is fine,” he said. “The fact it’s on decking causes the problem. I’m sure with some imagination, we can sort it out.”
Councillor Willie Boyle said: “Delighted that planning officers would be minded to grant with conditions. I would go along with that.”
Megan said: “I use it to paint and do editing and admin and make stuff. The piece of work I’m most proud of was principal photography for the homeless charity Bethany’s Report in 2019.”
Councillors agreed with Councillor Fitzpatrick’s proposals to continue the application for a month to find a compromise.