Duncan Place The Story So Far And The Developments To Save It

The story started with a tragic incident in a faculty owned and maintained by Town of Edinburgh Council (CEC), which prompted the pressing inspections of all their school and community properties. The CEC inspected and closed Duncan Place for further investigations. There have been areas which caused them concern, and, with such a tragedy already having taken place, there was no approach they had been willing to take any danger by letting the general public back right into a constructing which can or will not be unsafe. After some time CEC produced numerous units of financial figures and stated it was uneconomic to refurbish the constructing. They proposed demolition and rebuild of solely the college amenities.

This proposal was put to council committee and regardless of powerful deputations from the Duncan Place committee and other person teams from the constructing the proposal to demolish was passed. Confusingly this didn't imply that demolition was imminent. It meant that the council had the go ahead to begin going by way of the method that they are required to undergo previous to demolishing a building.

It's our understanding that CEC have a statutory obligation to offer college amenities however should not have a responsibility to supply community services. With budgets being reduce left, right and centre CEC had been very clear that that they had no price range to replace and run a group centre, nevertheless much they want to.

The group fought in opposition to the demolition, gathering signatures on a petition and in search of info about the demolition of historic buildings. Leith Major Faculty is a listed building and Duncan Place sits throughout the curtilage of Leith Major so can be handled as listed. We came throughout the Scottish Historic Surroundings Coverage (SHEP) Test. seo backlink can be a set of criteria that listed buildings have to meet earlier than demolition might be allowed. Duncan Place didn't meet the criteria. Historic Scotland and CECs personal planning department agreed with us!

The section of the building that housed the group centre is seen as more architecturally fascinating than the part housing the college gym and nursery. It also has a commemorative plaque on the south west elevation that is considered as being of significance.

https://canmore.org.uk/site/302280/edinburgh-4-duncan-place-duncan-place-resource-centre

This took CEC to the following place:

- it legally has to provide the school amenities however has no space to build them- budgets have been slashed- it is cheaper to rebuild then to refurbish- the constructing should not be demolished

Numerous CEC departments, together with the planning division, put their heads collectively and consultations were carried out with Leith Major Dad and mom Council (LPPC) and with the neighborhood from Duncan Place and a proposal was established.

CEC proposed that the much less architecturally fascinating faculty part of the building may very well be demolished to make approach for brand new faculty facilities. The Duncan Place committee had already begun exploring community asset transfers. Deputations were once more made to a council committee assembly and they voted that the relevant council departments ought to work with the Duncan Place committee to discover a neighborhood asset transfer and that the college part should be demolished and rebuilt. That is what is happening proper now.

The following chapter of the story begins...

Transfer of the constructing will solely take place when a possible business plan and the mandatory funding is guaranteed. CEC have offered us with a letter of consolation to include in proposals to potential funders. This states that they plan to switch the building to the neighborhood when plans and funds are in place.

Funds are required to refurbish the constructing in addition to explore the feasibility of ideas to run the constructing. It is only right and correct that the building isn't put into group hands till the community are ready and able to refurbish and reopen the building for the community. To this end, and the story up to now, is that now we have been engaged on this with the Community Possession Assist Service (COSS) and have been collaborating in common conferences with CEC.

With the intention to get refurbishment funding we need to understand how much refurbishment will value. With the intention to know this we will have to have all types of surveys carried out and plans drawn up. We will need specialist advise on listed buildings, contracts, VAT, restoration of stonework, historic plaques, interior house planning, letting out space, and so forth and so on and so on!

Alongside this we also have to present a fully researched business plan, money flow projections etc displaying that the group can maintain this building.

That is all attainable but is a lengthy course of. CEC are totally dedicated: they have ring fenced money to install a lift with the intention to make the constructing more wheelchair accessible. They've also included Duncan Place in an software to the Scottish Vitality Efficient Programme (SEEP). If successful this should present insulation for the walls and roof, a inexperienced lighting system and a green heating system.

Discovering what refurbishment will price is an expensive process in itself. The committee initially explored a start-up grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). This would provide a maximum of £10K. This wouldn't be adequate. We then had discussions with the Scottish Land Fund (SLF) which would offer a most start up fund of £30,000 and is aimed at communities wishing to purchase an asset. As the council had been proposing a switch and not a sale it was not completely clear if Duncan Place was eligible. The SLF and Huge Lottery had a round desk assembly and discussed Duncan Place. The advice was to await the discharge of the Group Belongings Grants fund from Big Lottery. This grant aims to empower individuals to create robust and resilient communities by helping them to accumulate, manage or develop assets comparable to buildings or land.

https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/international-content material/programmes/scotland/community-assets

It might probably provide up to £1m.

If Duncan Place is deemed eligible certainly one of their advisors will work with the Duncan Place Committee to supply a strategic plan. If the plans prove possible Duncan Place will hopefully achieve success in being awarded funding. This might be added to the potential SEEP funding and different pockets of funding.

The committee have been asked about quick time period plans for the building and the potential to use the constructing previous to refurbishment. The building is at the moment part of a demolition site. There isn't a access for members of the general public and, within the short time period, the constructing cannot be used. Ought to this variation we are going to replace this information.

The management committee would like to refurbish and reopen the building, producing revenue to offer much needed community house. We plan to explore renting out area within the constructing with the surplus generated used to subsidise space for group use. This may very well be:

- long term tenants- scorching desking for business begin ups- artists studios- organisations requiring assembly and training rooms- organisations delivering health, art, music, fitness, etc classes open to adults and children in the community on a paying or funded basis- previous user groups

The administration committee would like:

- to appoint a guide to undertake a feasibility examine & help prepare a business plan- to discover what has worked elsewhere- to have a condition survey carried out to inform us on the restore, conservation and prices of refurbishment and fit out- to carry out group engagement actions to back up our initial analysis on what is required and wished in this historic building- to explore apprenticeships in trades and traditional crafts- to build capacity of the volunteer management committee: training, mentoring and many others- to discover applicable governance

Given the funding required we're not able to ask people to signal anything but we've got already been approached for everlasting house to rent by a nationwide charity, a neighborhood charity and an artist who hires house elsewhere to run courses for folks with learning disabilities. The local community Councillors and some of the native political teams have also said they battle to get accessible meeting area of the scale required and would be interested. A number of hundred artists are on ready lists for house across the town.

We just lately carried out some neighborhood consultation within the form of a questionnaire and might be analysing the solutions shortly. Now we have begun creating a web site and will probably be adding our questionnaire.

The outcome would be that further deterioration of a historic building would be prevented, it might as a substitute be restored, owned by and in use by the community, and be contributing educationally and economically. Leith is an area of deprivation and this much beloved centre is sorely missed.