Gunner to go for good as regeneration plans unveiled
The mutli-million pound regeneration of Muirhouse and Pennywell has taken another significant step forward with the launch of a consultation exercise on Muirhouse Shopping Centre and the surrounding environment.
Outline plans would see existing shops, homes and offices in and around Muirhouse Shopping Centre – and the unpopular centre itself – demolished. Premises on Pennyywell Road – including the former Somerfield supermarket and The Gunner pub – are also earmarked for clearance to make way for new housing, retail units and community facilities.
The revised plan for the area is bolder and has a wider geographical spread than the previous masterplan. The section of Pennywell Road from the Suen Moon Chinese takeaway and adjoining opticians all the way down to The Gunner will go and the Shopping Centre itself will also disappear. Replacing these buildings will be new housing, retail and commercial units and a ‘civic square’ – a new heart for the neighbourhood.
The transformation has been made possible through a Scottish Government regeneration capital, with additional match funding boosting the project’s budget to £2 million.
Built in phases over four years, four individual blocks would see new homes for older people, flats and commercial and retail units:
- Block One (‘Gunner Block’): Tesco Local-type store, replacement of existing retail units and residential units up to four storeys.
- Block Two: Smaller unit containing two ground floor commercial units and eight flats.
- Block Three: Accommodation for older people (93 flats) and three retail units.
- Block Four: Library hub and 27 flats.
It’s though that if all goes to plan work will commence in Spring next year, starting with block 2 followed by blocks 1, 3 and 4.
Planning and design consultants Barton Willmore stress their initial plans for the redevelopment are ‘fluid’,but under the current proposals the library will be enhanced to become a community hub and North Edinburgh Arts will also remain on it’s present site. Work is continuing on the third main public building in the area, the NHS Lothian-led North West Partnership Centre.
There are no pland for a big new supermarket, however – a major retail unit would require considerable parking space and what’s envisaged instead is a smaller unit similar to a Tesco Metro or Sainsbury’s Local. This would be built on the site where the Gunner currently stands with housing above on three storeys.
Planners presented their initial ideas to the Improving Muirhouse and Pennywell (IMP) group last week and have subsequently shared their plans with the local businesses, homeowners and tenants who will be directly affected by the regeneration plans. The city council will also conduct a wider consultation with local residents over the coming weeks.
Community group Community Action North (CAN) also plans to work with local people to ensure they are involved in planning the area’s new heart. CAN will be holding a preliminary planning event, ‘People Powered Places’, in the artist’s unit in the shopping centre next month and plan to widen this out with more events to engage local people in the regneration process.Seven hundred
A CAN spokesperson said: “Few people will shed any tears to learn that the shopping centre is to go, but just what replaces it is very important. It’s crucial that local people are involved in planning the area’s future right from the start; after all, they are the people who will be living here.
“Major opportunities to transform a community like this don’t come along too often so we have got to seize this chance and make it work for local people. We must learn from past mistakes and ensure that the local community is a genuine partner in the regeneration process.”
The latest proposals will see the completion of the transformation on Pennywell Road itself as part of the wider Muirhouse and Pennywell regeneration. Phase two of work to build 700 homes at the top of Pennywell Road has just begun and construction of student accommodation on the site of St Paul’s RC church is scheduled to start in November. The shopping centre plans now provide the final piece of the regeneration jigsaw and create the link to Craigroyston Community High School at the foot of Pennywell Road.
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Who are these “community groups” and how exactly have they consulted with the tenants who live in the flats? The flats that 2 years ago had a major upgrade….
Great news. Though I wish the ‘last piece of the jigsaw’ would be bringing down the big flats along the Broadway, the Martello Tower and regenerating the shops at the foot. That would just finish everything off nicely.