Council goes ahead with Manderston Street Student Accommodation

The City of Edinburgh Council have granted permission for the old Bingo Hall on Manderston Street to be developed into Purpose Built Student Accommodation with 200 beds, in a close 6-5 vote.

Leith Walk Lib Dem Councillor Jack Caldwell attended the meeting to speak in support of the Halmyre Place Brief, a document produced in 2020 which showed clear community support and need for social-rent and affordable housing on this site.

The committee weighed up that point against the need to retain the Bingo Hall building when it was added into the Leith Conservation Area in 2022, limiting the adaptations the developers said was required to make it into general housing.

Councillor Caldwell has followed up this decision with a Question to the Planning Convenor in the September 2025 Council meeting, asking how the Council will avoid future similar conflicting policies, and if the Council can now deliver it's social-rent target on Leith Walk. Answers will be published once available:

"Given the decision of Development Management sub-committee on 3rd September 2025 to approve 200 Student beds on a site where mixed and affordable housing was promoted as a high-level principle in the Leith Walk / Halmyre Place Brief due to the site’s Conservation status taking precedence over the Place Brief;

• Question 1: What work has been done to update Place Briefs and ensure their parity with conservation area changes, and subsequent changes arising from CityPlan 2030 and NPF4?

   

  Answer: Apart from the extension to the Leith Conservation Area which incorporated this site, there has been no other conservation area extension; and therefore, there has been no other place brief that would have been affected byconservation area boundary changes. There is an action to review all our place briefs to make sure they are still relevant and up-to-date, this will capture changes arising from City Plan 2030 and NPF4

   

• Question 2: On CityPlan site H42 specifically, how will the Council ensure that the number of good quality, spacious affordable housing units needed are built, given that only a third of the site remains?"

   

  Answer: The approved application (if implemented) will impact on the number of housing units that can be built on the site. The report of handling clearly outlined the planning issues, and it was considered that the retention of the building was the outweighing factor. The DM Sub-Committee also explored the arguments; and accepted the Chief Planning Officer’s recommendation to approve the application; and understood that the site would not be delivering the housing numbers outlined in City Plan 2030. Any further applications for the remainder of the site will be assessed against the relevant development plan policies.