Defence Online

The long-running saga of the former Royal High school on Calton Hill in Edinburgh seems to be nearing its end after Edinburgh Council approved its transformation into a music school.The trust behind the plan cannot claim victory yet, however, as plans to turn the listed building designed by Thomas Hamilton into a £75m luxury hotel are still on the table despite being earlier refused by the council.The council favoured the music school over the hotel amid fears that the hotel’s major changes to Royal High might damage Edinburgh’s status as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Developer Duddingston House Properties is appealing against the refusal of their plans.Councillors on the Development Management sub-committee yesterday voted unanimously in favour of the plan to transfer Scotland’s only independent music school, St Mary’s School, based near Haymarket, to the former Royal High. The redesign will not greatly affect the frontage of the Royal High, which was once destined to be the building for a devolved Scottish Assembly, but internally there will be three performance spaces and a 300-seat concert hall in the former debating chamber.Planning officers had already backed the plans, and councillors duly voted unanimously in favour of The Royal High School Preservation Trust’s fully-funded proposals for the music school which will also result in the new facilities being made available to the public.The committee also voted to give the Trust an extended seven-year timescale for planning and listed building consent as Duddingston Properties have a deal with the council to develop on the site which gives them until 2022 to submit any new planning application.