West Edinburgh green belt site

New galleries at Surgeons’ Hall

Museums Galleries Scotland have given £60,000 to Surgeons’ Hall Museums to allow them to develop two new galleries. The galleries will be used for a new project called Body Voyager.

The project will explore the rest of computerised and robotic technology in medicine with lots of interactive exhibits.

The museum was first renovated in 2015 with Heritage Lottery funding of £4.4million. Their exhibitions

The Quaich Project say that their most recent plans have been received positively by members of the public. They ran a consultation late last year and got more than 1,000 responses with two thirds of respondents supportive of the changes to the gardens.

A second consultation event will be held soon, prior to the submission of a detailed Major Development application to the council.

The discussion asked whether participants liked the plans for a new Welcome Centre and whether they approved of the events to be held in the amphitheatre. The idea behind these is to support

Deal will boost skills and career support.

The Housing Construction and Infrastructure Skills Gateway (HCI) will be supported by £6 million from The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal and The Scottish Government over the next seven years.

HCI offers a range of short work-ready courses in renewable energy for homes, electric vehicle charging points, roads infrastructure, environmental technology and working with

Chris Henry, Director of Heritage said: “It is clear from our evaluations that there is a deep and unwavering interest in the human body and what happens to it during illness. Therefore, we feel that it is now time to look at the future of surgery and try to address changes that have taken place since the opening of the museum in 2015. In four short years much has changed in terms of the use of computerised and robotic technology in medicine. community use of the building.

The Quaich Project began with a £5 million donation from Norman Springford of Apex Hotels and is now gathering steam ahead of the planning application. The project will include new paths, list access and less steep inclines to access the gardens.

David Ellis, Managing Director at The Quaich Project, said: “The results of the public consultation on the designs have been incredibly encouraging. As the product of four years’ of engagement with stakeholders and the people of Edinburgh, the designs presented at the most recent public consultation will transform West Princes school pupils. Universities and colleges in the region all deliver the HCI Skills Gateway.

In this, the fastest growing area of Scotland, around 145,000 new homes will be built in the next 20 years, and there could be a skills gap which HCI Skills Gateway hopes to reduce.

Professor Sean Smith of Edinburgh Napier University sees this as an opportunity to “enable the region’s low carbon ambitions, embedding new technologies and clean-tech approaches for future An exponential rise in the use of robotics has led us to envisage new galleries to consider the changes this will bring.”

There will be four zones in the galleries: an introduction, the head, the torso and the limbs. Each area will look at the extent to which robotics has been introduced into certain procedures already, as well as charting the development of robotic equipment.

Body Voyager will open in the

Support for The Quaich Project

autumn of 2020. Street Gardens, making it more accessible, open and useful for all.

“We also asked people if they were in favour of a small number of major events facilitating smaller, community-focussed events and it’s heartening to receive the backing of almost three quarters of respondents for this approach. Currently, the Ross Bandstand is outdated and inflexible and the plans we’re putting forward open up possibilities for a whole range of community groups and activities around the year.”

The City of Edinburgh Council will continue to regulate the number and type of activities taking place

City Region Deal news

in the gardens. homes and buildings”.

Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure Michael Matheson said: “The Scottish Government’s £300m investment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal includes a £25m commitment to improving skills within the region. I’m delighted to see that the HCI skills gateway is set to benefit thousands of people in the years to come, helping to create the expertise that we need in the Housing, Construction and Infrastructure sectors in order to achieve a sustainable, carbon-free future for Scotland.”

Change is on the way

by Phyllis Stephen

At the moment the council is all about considering what the next decade will bring. It appears to us that they are looking to the past in many ways to create a sustainable future.

In that vein it has drawn up what is called a Choices document which is now published for an eight week consultation. The aim is to have a draft Local Development Plan in autumn 2020 for approval by The Scottish Ministers.The last time the council drafted a Local Development Plan it was rejected by the government so this time they have adopted a more thorough and modern approach. The next LDP will be adopted in 2021. In the Choices document planners set out to achieve four aims:

A more sustainable city supporting mental and physical wellbeing of all who live here

Somewhere that you do not need a car to get around

An affordable place for everyone to live

Everyone shares in its economic success.

These are lofty principles and difficult to achieve even in ten years, but they set the tone of an ambitious set of proposals. One of the main changes is to the provision of affordable housing within any development. If approved, then any development with more than a dozen houses must also provide affordable housing at a new increased rate of 35% of the total number of units. Currently this is 25%.

Public events will be held.

Planning Convener Neil Gardiner was keen to say that the various choices contained in the report are not in any way mutually exclusive.

As always there will be a diversity of views on the proposals which will be discussed in detail during the eight week consultation Copies of it are available in libraries and online

Cllr Gardiner said: “Edinburgh is a vibrant city, with a great quality of life. We have a beautiful green and historic environment, a thriving economy and numerous cultural attractions to be enjoyed. But, like many cities, we have increasing levels of poverty and health inequalities in our communities, rising housing costs and in some

areas, traffic congestion and poor air quality. We also need to adapt our city to meet the needs of an aging population, address the increasing impact of climate change and ensure growth is sustainable.

“We need to have an open conversation with our residents, businesses and other stakeholders about how our city grows and changes to meet future needs where this growth takes place. City Plan 2030 is about us making the right choices now so that our residents can make reasonable and informed choices about how and where they live and how they get around in the future.

“We’re embarking on one of the most significant periods of transformation in a generation and we need to rethink the way we expand to accommodate our growing population. We’re already committed to building 20,000 affordable and low-cost homes by 2027 but the city needs more housing, with particular emphasis on affordable homes.The plan we finally publish will affect us all to some degree and it’s important that we hear from residents on this journey to accommodate future needs. The history of Edinburgh is about successfully adapting and evolving – now it’s our turn to come together to think about how we can plan most effectively for the future.”

Vice Convener, Cllr Maureen Child, added: “To meet our ambitious climate change targets, we must develop differently in the future and all houses and other buildings will need be much more energy efficient. We will work with our partners in the industry to ensure we make the best use of the limited space we have and, going forward, we’ll be asking developers to think more carefully about location, density and design. "Where historically you may have built a supermarket on a brownfield site, we need to think of a mix of opportunities and uses for the site, including housing.

“Of course, connectivity is central to this and our Transport and Environment Committee is considering an ambitious new City Mobility Plan, designed to improve sustainable transport over the next decade, while enabling the type of growth we’re aiming for in City Plan 2030.”