Planner warns of green belt housing threat
- Demand for 31,000 new homes by 2015
- New local plan will allocate housing land
- Planners waiting for public reaction
A top city planner has warned that the council will be forced to develop green belt land because of pressure from the Scottish Executive.
More than 31,000 new houses need to be built in and around the city by 2015 to meet expected demand.
And with space on brownfield sites rapidly diminishing, the protected green belt is the next target for developers.
The council is currently consulting on a new Edinburgh city local plan, to be adopted in 2006, which will allocate land for new housing.
The need for housing is likely to put the biggest strain on planners to build in the green belt, once described as the "lungs of the Capital".
And big business could soon cover large areas of the undeveloped land which currently rings Edinburgh.
Lawrence M arshall, vice convener of the planning committee, said: "A new local plan for Edinburgh is about to be drawn up and there will be consultation on it to gauge reaction to proposed plans.
"There is tremendous pressure on the planning department, and given the number of houses we have to build under government statutes, a lot of that pressure will be on the development of the green belt.
"How we deal with that will depend a lot on what the public come back to us with."
The Edinburgh and Lothian structure plan already contains proposals to build up to 400 houses on green belt land.
In recent years the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters at Gogarburn and the proposed new Queen Margaret University College campus outside Musselburgh have raised fears about the number of developments being allowed on green belt land.
However, Councillor Marshall said: "There is still plenty of space in and around Edinburgh where offices could be developed. It will be finding houses for all these people that will cause the greatest difficulty.
"The development at the Waterfront is a great help in that it has released some of the pressure in the short term. But that pressure will grow again and new solutions will need to be found."
The issue was initially raised by Bill Furness, chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, who said green belt land development would be necessary to encourage future growth of the city.
"This city is going to experience growth over the next 15 years and we don't want to curtail that," he said.
"The city is rather constrained, though, with the sea to the north, hills to the south and the green belt all around us.
"It is difficult to see how we will be able to encourage the kind of expansion the city is expected to see without encroaching on green belt land."
The Edinburgh Green Belt Trust admitted it was concerned about the idea of greater development.
Projects manager Charlie Cumming said the council should instead focus on providing increased access to the country areas.
"There is great value in the continuous green belt and a lot of the reasons people enjoy living here may vanish if the green belt was developed," he said.
"We are concerned about the need for new housing possibly leading to the destruction of the green belt and the council should be promoting the use of the green belt, so people can enjoy what they have."
Council leader Donald Anderson admitted that the increasing demand for housing would leave city chiefs difficult choices to make.
He said: "We have a beautiful city with beautiful surroundings and we want to maintain that, so there is no question we will face difficult challenges in the years to come."
Scotsman.com, 21st July 2004
