ONE of the world's foremost conservation experts believes plans for a controversial hotel development "ignore and obliterate" the world heritage status of Scotland's capital.
Professor Herb Stovel, a long-time adviser to world heritage body Unesco, told a public inquiry in Edinburgh that the 17-storey development would dramatically change the city's Haymarket district.
Prof Stovel, who was behind a major study which le
d to Edinburgh securing world heritage status, said it made no difference that the five-star hotel proposed by Irish developer Tiger was outside the designated site.
The professor, a regular visitor to Edinburgh in recent years, was accused of "betraying" his independence by agreeing to back the heritage group which is fighting the development, earmarked for a gap site which has been lying empty for more than 40 years.
He insisted he was addressing the hearing in a personal capacity and that during recent visits to Edinburgh he had become increasingly concerned about the impact of proposed major developments, like the ones at Haymarket, Caltongate and the proposed replacement for the St James shopping centre. The inquiry has heard claims that the Intercontinental hotel will ruin famous views of the city and dominate the Haymarket area. It has attracted almost 2,000 objectors.
The Scottish Government called in Tiger's application last autumn during an official visit by Unesco inspectors to the city's world heritage site.
Civil servants said the council had failed to make a strong enough case to justify that such a tall building was appropriate for its location, next to Haymarket railway station. The Canadian academic, who is based at Carleton University, studied in Edinburgh in the 1970s and returned to the city in the early 1990s to assess the capital's Old and New Towns after the city's bid to secure world heritage status, which was granted in 1995.
Speaking about the Haymarket project, Prof Stovel said it would be "hard to argue" that a development 30 feet from the boundary of the world heritage site should not maintain harmony with immediately adjacent properties within the Unesco-recognised are.
He told the inquiry: "Even though the proposed development lies immediately outside the world heritage zone, it cannot be regarded as a 'no man's land', open to any form of new development.
"The strategic importance of the site, poised at the junction between the Old Town and New Town, and astride a key entry to the heart of Edinburgh, demands that any development subordinate itself to the character and attributes of the New and Old Towns."
Prof Stovel said the development should have provided an "entry" into Edinburgh in keeping with the city's status and "not one which attempts to ignore and obliterate that status".
He added: "The project in my view constitutes a dramatic disruption to the character of the existing urban fabric and would have strongly negative impacts on many of the key attributes that define the character of the (Haymarket] district around the development site."
Prof Stovel denied claims by Roy Martin, QC, representing Tiger, that he had become a "partisan advocate" of the Cockburn Association's stance – in sharp contrast to his previous role as an independent assessor for Unesco and its advisory body ICOMOS.
The professor said he had been asked to appear at the inquiry after giving a lecture organised by the Cockburn Association last year, but insisted he was not being paid a professional fee to appear as a witness. The inquiry continues.
