France and the Netherlands will be removed from the list of destinations exempt from quarantine requirements due to an increased number of cases of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Malta and Monaco will also be removed from the exemption list.
The decision made by the Scottish Government, and also made by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales as well as the UK Government, is to reduce the risk of the transmission of the virus by those travelling from these countries.
The public health measures will come into effect at 4am tomorrow (Saturday 15 August) and will mean those arriving in Scotland from France, the Netherlands, Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Malta, and Monaco will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “We have always been clear we are closely monitoring the situation in all countries and that we may need to take action to remove a country from the list of places exempt from quarantine requirements should the virus show a resurgence.
“These are not decisions which we take lightly but on the basis of the evidence it is important that we take action to suppress transmission of the virus and protect public health.”
Public health rules for international travel are an important part of Scotland’s wider response to the pandemic, to limit the introduction of new chains of transmission as Scotland’s own infection rates have been falling.
All international travellers arriving into Scotland, apart from a very limited number of exemptions, must complete a passenger locator form and provide evidence that they have done so on arrival in the UK if requested to do so by a Border Force official. Individuals who do not complete the form and present it when asked on arrival may be fined £60. The fine can be doubled for each subsequent offence up to a maximum of £480.
Those travelling abroad should check in advance if there are any requirements to quarantine on arrival at their destination.
The existing list of overseas destinations where those arriving in Scotland are exempt from self-isolation can be found online.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to France, Monaco, the Netherlands, Malta, Turks and Caicos Islands and Aruba.
Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, said:“It’s understandable that the government wants to restrict travel to these countries at this time, but the burden of this decision disproportionally falls on holidaymakers – thousands of whom are likely to be left significantly out of pocket because their airline will refuse to refund them.
“Unlike tour operators, airlines now routinely ignore FCO travel warnings and refuse refunds because, they argue, the flight is still operating. Some major airlines, like Ryanair, won’t even allow customers to rebook without charging a hefty fee.
“The government wants us to act responsibly and not travel to countries with an FCO warning, but it needs to make it clear to airlines that they too need to act responsibly and not ignore government travel advice in an effort to pocket customer cash.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to severe weather on Tuesday night.
Crews were mobilised to a number of flooding incidents caused by heavy rain, and fires believed to have been caused by the weather across Scotland, with the east and north of the country particularly affected.
Between 10pm on Tuesday, August 11 and 8am on Wednesday, August 12 the Service’s Operations Control room in Edinburgh received more than 500 (five hundred) 999 calls – almost 400 of which were related to flooding, while Dundee received 300 calls and Johnstone more than 200.
This included calls to a significant landslide at a caravan park in Pettycur, Fife affecting 450 caravans. Crews assisted in the rescue of 27 people and also the relocation of 218 people from the site.
A further 14 people were rescued by firefighters following significant flooding on the M8 motorway, where a number of cars were submerged between junctions 5 and 6.
Six fire appliances and more than 20 firefighters were mobilised to a fire within a kitchen showroom in Falkirk.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms which is currently in place for parts of the country until Thursday, August 13.
Ross Haggart is the Deputy Chief Officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. He said: “This was an extremely challenging night where we received an incredibly high number of calls, making this one of the busiest nights the service has seen this year so far.
“We have seen high numbers of flooding calls from the Lothian, Falkirk and Fife areas which were severely affected by serious rainfall – resulting in a significant localised response from the national service.
“Crews also attended a number of other serious incidents including road traffic collisions and fires which may have been caused by the weather.
“My thanks must go to our crews and Operations Control for their outstanding work overnight in very challenging conditions, and to our partners for their continued assistance.”
The atrocious weather conditions are thought to have been a factor in the train derailment near Stonehaven which resulted in three fatalities. Investigations are now underway.
Police ScotlandAssistant Chief Constable Judi Heaton said: “We can confirm that a joint investigation into the tragic incident near Stonehaven yesterday is being conducted.
“Officers from Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road are working together closely as the investigation seeks to establish the full circumstances of what happened and will utilise the skills of all agencies.
“The investigation, which will be carried out under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, is in parallel to the independent safety investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB).
“The multi-agency response to the incident remains ongoing and we are working with partners to support the family and friends of those involved as well as the rail family and local community.
“I also want to thank the responders who attended yesterday and were faced with a challenging scene. Our thanks must also go to the local community who rallied around the emergency services with many offers of assistance and we are grateful for your support.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with those affected at this difficult time.”
The three people who died at the derailment incident have been formally identified and can now be named as follows:
Brett McCullough (45) – Driver Donald Dinnie (58) – Conductor Christopher Stuchbury (62) – Passenger
Family tribute for Christopher Stuchbury aged 62 from Aberdeen:
“Chris was a much adored husband, son, dad, stepdad, grandad, brother and uncle and was a treasured and loved friend to many, including the Targe Towing Team where he was an integral and valued member of staff.
“He also volunteered at Roxburghe House in Aberdeen during his spare time which he thoroughly enjoyed doing.
“We are devastated by his death and we request privacy at this difficult time as we come to terms with our loss.”
Brett’s wife Stephanie has requested that Police Scotland issue the following statement on their behalf:
“Brett was a much loved husband, father, son and uncle who will be sorely missed by all.
“It is an extremely difficult time for us as a family and we would ask for privacy as we try to come to terms with our horrendous loss.”
Statement from the family of Donald Dinnie:
“As a family we are devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Donald, a loving and proud dad, son, partner, brother, uncle and friend.
“No words could ever describe how much he will be missed by us all and there will always be a missing piece in our hearts.
“It is so heart warming to see how many people have fond memories of Donald and I am sure they have plenty of happy and funny stories to tell. He was a kind, caring and genuine person who was never found without a smile on his face. We know he will be deeply missed by all.
“Together we thank each and everyone of you for your kind words and condolences but we kindly ask at this time that we have the chance to grieve privately as a family.”
Muckle Media, the creative PR agency, has announced a number of innovative support programmes to help businesses in Edinburgh use PR and marketing to support economic survival.
Three streams of activity will provide much needed support for Edinburgh businesses looking to reach more customers through creative communications campaigns.
£20k Muckle Helps grant fund
The £20,000 Muckle Helps grant is a 100% free pot of PR fee funding, which is open for applications today. Interested businesses can register their details here and provide a one sentence response explaining why they need PR support and what it would be used for.
Applications close on the 31st August at which point the Muckle Media team will select the businesses they feel they can have the most impact supporting.
The fund will support a total of eight campaigns. It is made up of three packages worth £5,000, with one each in the food and beverage, tourism and B2B services sectors and five packages worth £1,000 each which are open to any sector. Additional funding may become available to extend the programme and the agency is interested in hearing from any potential funders that may wish to sponsor or match-fund additional support.
PR Now, Pay Later
In recognition of the huge impact coronavirus has had on cashflow for businesses, Muckle Media is also taking the unprecedented step of offering ten-month payment terms on invoices on request, allowing businesses to access creative PR now that does not need to be paid for until June 2021.
This innovative programme will support seasonal businesses in particular, as they can benefit from marketing now to improve their business performance in the 2020 season, but not pay for it until profits are being made into the 2021 season.
Terms and conditions and guarantees may be required to access this option. The amount of funding available through the PR Now, Pay Later programme will be linked to Muckle Media’s business growth, with every £1,000 of new business won (on a pay now basis) unlocking £500 of pay later fund.
PR bootcamp
Finally, Muckle Media will be offering a ten-week PR bootcamp programme, aimed at PR professionals who would like to review and revise their strategic communications plans in light of the many changes facing the world.
Also open to out-of-work communications professionals looking to upskill, the ten-week bootcamp will follow Muckle Media’s ten step communications planning process and deliver weekly webinar content on topics including insights, strategy, planning and crisis management.
Weekly content will include guest speakers from across the industry and accompanying worksheets will allow participants to create a full strategic communications plan over the course of the ten weeks.
For those short on time or who are only particularly interested in one topic, there is also the option to opt into specific webinars rather than the full course.
Nathalie Agnew, Muckle Media Managing Director, said: “It’s a difficult time for the economy just now so we would like to do everything we can to help businesses to spring back.
“Effective PR and communications are key to cut through the noise and reach potential customers, so we hope that our three new initiatives will prove popular with businesses of all sizes in need of support.”
The TDS Charitable Foundation and SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust have welcomed a new report on compliance in the private rented sector produced by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) – part of a wider programme of work funded by the two charitable organisations.
The report, “Improving Compliance with Private Rented Sector Legislation”, explores how local authority enforcement and regulation in the UK’s private rented sector (PRS) could be improved.
The report details findings from 70 in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and professionals from 13 UK local authorities. The research finds considerable variation in stance, philosophy and approach to enforcement and compliance both across UK nations and also within them across local authorities.
The research was carried out by Dr Jennifer Harris, Professor Dave Cowan and Professor Alex Marsh of the University of Bristol – one of the 14 institutions in the CaCHE consortium which is led by the University of Glasgow.
The report makes a number of recommendations for UK policy makers, including:
Improving the data available to local authorities on the private rented sector.
Providing adequate funding to local authorities to allow them to develop appropriate and effective responses to the changing nature and context of the private rented sector.
Codification of the diverse legislative provisions which currently exist.
Providing sentencing guidelines to the criminal courts and tribunals to ensure that punishment is proportionate to the nature of the offence.
Professor Martin Partington CBE QC, Chair of the TDS Charitable Foundation, said: “With similar remits, both the TDS Charitable Foundation and SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust work to raise standards in the private rented sector by advancing education on housing rights and obligations.
“This research is another example of the support we have given to many diverse and far-reaching projects within the rental industry. Together we are committed to bringing about a positive change that will benefit both renters and landlords.”
John Duff, Chair of the SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, added: “We are proud to support initiatives like this that support the work we do within the private rented sector.
“This is a comprehensive piece of research which we hope will stimulate debate across the industry, and ultimately create solutions to the issues identified as we work to continually improve the sector.”
Urgent reform of the funding of UK adult social care is needed to save a desperately overstretched system which has now reached breaking point, warn policy experts at the University of Birmingham.
The crisis is partly the result of a ‘lost decade’ in which policymakers systematically failed to act on alarms raised back in 2010, say the researchers in a hard-hitting report published in the Journal of Social Policy.
In what is described as “the first analysis of its kind to present policy makers with different scenarios for adult social care funding and reform, to view these in practice (by comparing them to nearly a decade of policy) and to set out the relationship between future economic growth and the provision of sustainable adult social care”, the team, led by Professor Jon Glasby in the School of Social Policy, asserts that without swift Government intervention, the adult social care system could quickly become unsustainable.
The 2020 update was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council part of UK Research and Innovation, as part of the research titled “Sustainable Care: connecting people and systems, 2017-21”, led by the University of Sheffield’s Professor Sue Yeandle.
The article draws on and updates a 2010 review of the reform and costs of adult social care – commissioned by Downing Street and the UK Department of Health – which concluded the system was widely recognised as “broken” and that, with no action, the costs of adult social care could double within two decades.
Moreover, this would be the case for current services and approaches (which had already been strongly criticised for failing to fully and appropriately meet need), leading to significantly higher costs with no improvement.
Jon Glasby, lead author of the report and Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Birmingham, said: “Our research has explored the future reform and costs of adult social care, and the high cost of inaction.
“In 2010, we were adamant that doing nothing was not an option. Our 2020 update shows that, without swift Government intervention, the adult social care system could quickly become unsustainable. Even though this research was carried out before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, urgent action is likely to be even more pressing in the current context.”
Not only were these warnings not heeded – but the situation has since got worse.
Adult social care has always been organised differently and funded less generously than health care, and has faced a combination of pressures caused by demographic change, increased costs, and rising need, compounded by cuts to public expenditure.
Ambitious plans for a ‘National Care Service’ were not implemented, while the austerity agenda led to a decade of spending cuts, service pressures, and a growing sense of crisis.
Predictably, the result has been greater unmet/under-met need, more self-funding, lower quality care, a crisis among care providers, and much greater pressure on staff, families and partner agencies.
Cuts have also fallen heaviest on older people, with services for working age people less affected. Despite the legitimate needs of other groups, it is hard to interpret this other than as (at least in part) the product of ageist attitudes and assumptions about the role and needs of older people.
While the situation is urgent, the human misery caused by this ‘lost decade’ is not as visible as financial pressures on more prominent, popular and better understood services, such as hospitals or schools:
“When social care for older people is cut to the bone, lives are blighted, distress and pressure increase, and the resilience of individuals and their families is ground down”, says the paper. “Yet this happens slowly – day by day, week by week, and month by month. It is not sudden, dramatic or hi-tech in the way a crisis in an A&E department may be, and tends to attract less media, political and popular attention… With yet more urgency than in 2010 we warn: Doing nothing is NOT an option.”
Some airlines are still failing to refund passengers
Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic and Tui are failing to refund passengers in agreed timeframes, breaching recent commitments to the regulator that they would speed up their refund process.
Which? has seen evidence that the airlines are reneging on promises they made to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) about how they would improve their refund processes, including from some passengers who have been left out of pocket since March.
The findings come after the CAA reviewed airlines’ behaviour and identified several carriers that weren’t paying refunds ‘sufficiently quickly’, but opted not to take enforcement action after receiving commitments from the airlines to improve their performance.
However, Which? found that Ryanair, Tui and Virgin – all identified by the CAA as not processing refunds fast enough – are falling short of the promises they made to the regulator, prompting concerns from Which? that the regulator’s enforcement powers may not be fit for purpose.
The CAA told Ryanair it wasn’t satisfied that it was taking 10 weeks or longer to process refunds, and that airlines offering vouchers should also be offering passengers the choice of a cash refund. Following the regulator’s review, Ryanair published a commitment on its website that all refund requests up to the end of May would be cleared by 31 July.
But Which? has heard from Ryanair passengers who are still waiting for refunds from March, and who are still trying to get cash refunds after they were initially sent vouchers despite requesting cash refunds.
Virgin Atlantic told the CAA its maximum waiting time for refunds is 120 days, but some passengers have been trying to get refunds from the airline for longer than four months.
The consumer champion heard from two passengers who have been waiting over 130 days for refunds for flights that were cancelled in March.
Tui was reprimanded by the CAA for issuing vouchers and then making customers wait a further 28 days before they could apply for their money back. Tui told the CAA that “on average, cash refunds will be processed within 14 days”.
However, despite telling the regulator it is no longer automatically issuing vouchers, Tui still states on its website that customers must wait for a voucher before they can claim a cash refund.
Which? has heard from a passenger who is yet to even receive the voucher that she needs to claim her refund – or received any other communication from Tui – after her flight was cancelled in April.
Following its review, the CAA said a number of airlines have committed to speeding up the time it is taking to process refunds without requiring enforcement action, and that it would continue to monitor those airlines and continue to push for further improvements.
It said it would consider if enforcement action was appropriate if airlines failed to meet their commitments. However, it also highlighted that its enforcement powers are not well suited to swift action, and that it can take a considerable period of time for a case to come before the courts.
Which? is concerned that if airlines are continually allowed to openly break the law on refunds through this crisis, it will set a precedent that sees airlines continue to treat passengers unfairly without fear of consequence or sanctions.
Airlines have repeatedly been given the benefit of the doubt, but some have treated the regulator’s efforts to secure voluntary commitments with indifference. It is clear that more needs to be done to give the CAA the clout to effectively hold airlines to account.
Which? is calling for the government to enhance the CAA’s existing powers to allow it to more easily take swift and meaningful action against airlines that have repeatedly been exposed for disregarding the law and their passengers over the course of the pandemic.
The consumer champion believes this should be the first of a series of reforms to the travel industry, to help ensure the future of international travel from the UK and to help restore consumer trust in the sector.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“Time after time, Which? has exposed airlines breaking the law on refunds for cancelled flights due to the pandemic and treating their passengers unfairly, and we’re concerned that they now feel empowered to do as they please without fear of punishment.
“Passengers must be able to rely on a regulator that has effective powers to protect their rights – especially at a time of unprecedented turmoil. The government needs to step up and ensure the CAA has the tools it needs to hold airlines to account, or risk consumer trust in the travel industry being damaged beyond repair.”
Kirsty Ness requested a cash refund from Ryanair immediately after her flights were cancelled in late March, but on 20 April she received a voucher instead.
Kirsty has called Ryanair several times to cash in the voucher, but she has yet to receive her refund.
Palliative care nurse Jeanette Howard was sent a voucher for her Ryanair flights to Alicante that were cancelled on 20 March, even though she had applied for a cash refund.
She says she’s called the airline ‘on a daily basis’ since late April to ask to exchange the voucher for cash, but she’s still waiting for her money back.
Ryanair did not respond to Which?’s request for a comment.
Jeff Palmer and his wife were due to fly with Virgin Atlantic to Vegas on 9 April. He first requested a refund from Virgin on 31 March after they cancelled his flights, and told Which? he has tried ‘every method under the sun’ to contact them.
He received emails telling him it would be 90 days, then 50, then another 14, before receiving a refund for his flight but not his wife’s – despite it being part of the same booking. He told Which? he has contacted them several times since, and still no sign of a refund for her ticket.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said:“The huge volume of refund requests we have received, combined with the constraints on our teams and systems during the pandemic, has meant that refunds have been taking longer than usual to process, and we sincerely apologise for this.
“Since April, we have been focussed on making improvements wherever possible. We’ve boosted the size of the team dedicated to processing refunds five-fold, with over 200 people now directly involved. This has increased our capacity to process a greater number of refunds, more quickly and we continue to minimise the wait time for existing refund requests.
“Thanks to the progress made, we are steadily reducing the maximum processing time for each new Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays cash refund. For customers requesting a refund in August, we expect the maximum processing time to be 80 days, from the date the refund is requested. For those requesting a refund in September, we expect it to take a maximum of 60 days, and then reduce to 30 days for refunds requested in October, before returning to normal levels.
“Up until recently we have been committed to processing existing refunds within a maximum of 120 days, from the date the refund is requested, and we inform each customer when this is done by email. The timeframe begins from the date the refund is requested and acknowledged by a customer agent, not the date the flight is cancelled.
“We are aware that there are a portion of Virgin Atlantic bookings with pending refund requests which were incorrectly inputted and unfortunately now exceed 120 days for processing. This was an administration error and as soon as this was identified we urgently investigated. We are resolving this as a priority and any customers affected will have their refund processed as soon as possible.”
Kath Lowe’s Tui flight from Manchester to Tenerife was cancelled on 29 April, but she hasn’t received a voucher – or any other communication – from Tui and until she does she can’t claim a refund.
She says she’s tried calling Tui on many occasions but she’s never managed to get through to its call centre.
A Tui spokesperson said:“Customers with cancelled flight only bookings which were due to depart before 11 July were issued refund credit vouchers, and could then apply for a cash refund via our online form. These refunds were processed within 28 days.
“Customers with cancelled flight only bookings which were due to depart from 11 July onwards will automatically receive cash refunds. These refunds will be processed within 14 days.
“We’re really sorry to any customers who may have experienced delays in receiving their refund.”
Tui has also confirmed a voucher was sent to the case study in May but speculated it may have been lost in junk mail. They’ve now requested for this to be cancelled and a refund to be issued.
The CAA said:“We will review any supplementary evidence provided to us by Which? – beyond the 12,000 submitted to us during the review – but we will need to see individual examples in order to consider what further action is needed with the airlines.
“Throughout our review, alongside information received from airlines, we also used information from consumers and consumer groups, as well as mystery shopping from our consumer protection team, to determine what commitments were needed from airlines to improve performance.
“If we had not received such commitments during our review, then our next step would be to consider formal enforcement action. However, this enforcement process can take a significant period of time without providing short-term results for consumers. For example, the enforcement action we commenced against Ryanair in 2018 is not expected to come to court until at least 2021.
“While our initial review has finished, we have been clear that we will continue to monitor performance and should any airline fall short of the commitments they have made to us, we will take further action as required.”
Support for vital schemes to support local businesses while ensuring shoppers and staff stay safe
Communities across Edinburgh and the Lothians have received a share of £1 million of grants to help town centres recover from the consequences of the coronavirus crisis.
The money nationally has come from The Towns and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Resilience and Recovery Fund, financed by the Scottish Government and administered by Scotland’s Towns Partnership.
Among the organisations to receive support is City of Edinburgh Council which has received £40,000 towards a digital marketing campaign and other promotional material to support a campaign encouraging people to shop local.
Details of all the projects supported in the region are available here.
The fund has supported a raft of schemes to help town centres in their fightback from the Covid-19 pandemic, including helping pay for PPE supplies as well as funding local marketing campaigns urging people to support businesses in their community, highlighting that they are open for business.
Phil Prentice, Chief Officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership,said: “Businesses in our town centres are showing remarkable resilience and innovation in how they are responding to the consequences of Covid-19 to best serve their customers and communities.
“From rapidly accelerating their online offerings to moving quickly to ensure that safeguards are in place to ensure that staff can work safely and customers shop responsibly, their work is playing an important part in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. The impact they are having should not be underestimated.
“We are delighted to have been able to support projects in Edinburgh, East Lothian and West Lothian and pleased that the work will touch on so many towns as we encourage everyone to think local first – and safety first – to support the businesses and the people behind them who really are at the heart of the areas in which they live.
“Whether it be buying your groceries or enjoying a meal out, the support you give is critical as we work hard to secure a sustainable and successful future for Scotland’s town centres.”
Nationally 73 projects are being supported – 24 in full and 49 in part – covering 188 individual towns. Money has been granted to organisations including local authorities and community business groups.
Scotland’s Communities Secretary, Aileen Campbell MSP, said: “Living more of our lives locally – shopping, eating and enjoying activities in the areas we live – has never been more important.
“It has a huge role to play in supporting Scotland’s economic and social recovery from COVID-19. This fund is enabling great work to support and promote local businesses in more than 180 towns by highlighting the diverse and vibrant selection of products and services on offer
“Taking simple steps like choosing to visit a nearby shop or café, or buying goods or services from a business in your own community helps support local jobs. These actions help local economies to thrive, bring communities together and, crucially, help us to continue to suppress the virus by limiting unnecessary travel.”
The Towns and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Resilience and Recovery Fund totals £2 million. While half of this has been used towards the current wave of grants, £700,000 will provide support to business improvement districts when current BIDs Resilience funding expires.
The remainder of the money includes support for the Scotland Loves Local campaign, a major multimedia promotion championing the message for shoppers to think local first.
The Citizens Assembly will resume online following a break due to COVID disruption. We will reconvene on 5 September and will report to the Scottish Government and Parliament by the end of the year.
The Assembly’s remit will be unchanged.
You may recall that before the pause, members had made substantial progress in developing a shared vision for the future of Scotland, and had considered key challenges to building a sustainable country.
Members also examined Scotland’s finances and taxation, and discussed how decisions are taken for and about Scotland.
The Assembly will now complete its work across these areas, while also considering the impact of COVID-19.
The interim report, The Journey So Far, was published yesterday alongside a comprehensive set of articles and videos summarising the work.
A planning application by S1 Developments for the St Joseph’s Nursing Home site at Gilmore Place has been granted unanimously – subject to conditions – by the city council’s Development Management Sub-Committee yesterday.
The committee voted in favour of a 230-bed student scheme, over 29 cluster flats, on the former Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home site. This C-listed main building includes a chapel.
The proposed project will see communal facilities installed in the retained and refurbished chapel, while existing east and west outbuildings and extensions will be demolished and replaced with new three storey accommodation around a retained landscaped courtyard. These buildings will be of high-quality stone and zinc and this will be a predominantly car free development with provision for 230 cycle parking spaces.
The proposal ensures an effective new use for a unique listed building and its grounds whilst causing the least possible harm.
The potential to deliver the site for another care home was not considered suitable for modern requirements, and upgrades to meet Care Commission standards were prohibitively expensive. Delivering housing was severely constrained by a number of factors including access constraints and the layout of the site.
The introduction of new build elements in order to deliver a viable proposal will only deliver a 4 per cent increase in the current building footprint, while the delivery of a high-quality courtyard will see a 12 per cent increase in the green space.
The site is in an accessible location and close to university facilities.
Provision of new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) will support the growth and development of the higher education sector in Edinburgh. In doing so it will increase the range and choice of accommodation offered to students.
The current ratio of approximately three students per one bed space in Edinburgh, demonstrates the demand for new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA).
A spokesperson for S1 Developments, said:“I’m delighted with the decision taken today by councillors. As an Edinburgh-based family company, we are thrilled to see this exciting project given the green light and look forward to breathing new life into this former nursing home.
“Redevelopment will restore the existing care-home building into high quality student accommodation, allowing the retention of the central chapel in its existing form.
“We look forward to getting these proposals underway and to continue working with council officials and the local community to deliver them.”
