Signs that all is not well with city development plan - John McLellan

So full of holes is the City Plan 2030 that the only surprise is there aren’t more than those contained in a one-page paper presented to last Wednesday’s planning committee.

Breezily contained in the general “business bulletin”, the Government wants to know more about Edinburgh’s housing strategy, the density of any development on green land, plans for the airport and the coastal areas, and the city’s longer-term plans to reach carbon net zero.

But there is also a basic but important question about the 20-minute neighbourhood concept, with a challenge to the council’s view that a 20-minute neighbourhood is one in which all key services are accessible within a round trip of 20 minutes, not 20 there and back.

Just changing the 20 minutes from a diameter to a radius will have huge implications for all the planning assumptions which underpin the plan, particularly the siting of schools and health facilities in new estates.

There also appears to be concerns about the height of buildings at the Bio Quarter near the Royal Infirmary, a key strategic site for both economic development and hitting housing targets. Unless civil servants say proposed heights are too low, which seems somewhat unlikely, this could have serious implications for the number of homes the site can accommodate and add to Edinburgh’s existing inability to meet demand.