Corstorphine – Planning Edinburgh

Updated City Centre and Town Centre Planning Guidance

Four front covers of Town Centre Guidance documents - Tollcross, Leith, Portobello and Corstorphine. Each cover shows a row of shops with flats above and pavement & road in front.

Following the adoption of the City Plan 2030 our City Centre and Town Centre Planning Guidance has now been updated.

The updated guidance also takes into account

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)
changes to the permitted development rights to allow some changes of use of shops to other uses without planning permission

The eight town centres are

Bruntsfield/ Morningside
Corstorphine
Gorgie/Dalry
Leith
Nicolson Street/ Clerk Street
Portobello
Stockbridge
Tollcross

The guidance has been informed by a ‘public life street assessments’ carried out in 2016, which explored how town centres should evolve to maximise the potential for benefiting public life and a health check which has considered the centre’s strengths, vitality and viability, weaknesses and resiliencies.

The guidance assists the delivery of NPF4 objectives and policies, in particular to ensure town centres are vibrant, healthy and resilient places for people to work, enjoy and visit.

Town centres are an important focal point for people who live and work in Edinburgh. They provide shopping, leisure and community facilities in locations which are easily accessible by walking, wheeling and cycling or public transport. They also contribute to local living and 20 minute neighbourhoods.

The updated guidance is no longer statutory supplementary guidance, but will remain as planning guidance and a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

Have your say on the future of West Edinburgh

Illustration featuring west Edinburgh landmarks, people travelling and playing as well as buildings, nature and trees.

We would like to hear your views on managing change and developments through three different but connected programmes:

Towards West Edinburgh 2050: proposals on how the area to the west of the city should change in the long-term
West Edinburgh Placemaking Framework and Strategic Masterplan: sets out plans to create a new neighbourhood along the A8, next to Edinburgh Airport
Broxburn to Maybury Public Transport and Active Travel Improvements: working with West Lothian Council, we want to improve travel along the A8/A89 between Broxburn and Maybury.

The area to the west of Edinburgh is home to many people and is a place of work or study for others. With its key transport links, and major leisure, sport and cultural activities, it’s an important destination and hub for onward travel to the city, the surrounding region, Scotland and beyond.

We need to manage and coordinate future investment and development in the area to make sure that this growth is well coordinated and supported.

As well as shaping developments, our proposals will;

manage traffic and improve connections
help tackle poverty and make sure growth supports everyone
help us to meet the city’s ambitious net-zero targets

How you can get involved:

get more details about the three programmes and give your views online at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/west-edinburgh
attend a webinar to find out more https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/west-ed-events/
speak to the teams in person on Wednesday 30 August 2023 between 3:30pm and 7:30pm in the Findhorn room in the Marriott Hotel, 111 Glasgow Rd, Edinburgh EH12 8NF (If you have any accessibility requirements, please email cityplan2030@edinburgh.gov.uk or call 0131 469 6163)

You may comment on any or all these programmes. See the website for closing dates for the consultations.

Your views will help us develop our plans going forward. We look forward to hearing from you!

Public Life Street Assessments

The 2016 Public Life Street Assessments were undertaken by consultants and were funded by the ‘Smarter Choices Smarter Places’ programme. The studies were used in the preparation of the 2017 Town Centre Supplementary Guidance.

A series of studies investigating the public life of Edinburgh’s town centres reveal how each currently functions in terms of pedestrian/cyclist movement and as a place.

Public Life Street Assessments, carried out by design consultants HERE+NOW for the Council, involve a mix of direct observation methodologies, user interviews and more focussed sub studies such as facade, land use and activity studies. In-depth analysis of this data identifies trends in the way people currently use the street environment. This has informed suggested opportunities for improvement.

The assessments supplement the Council’s existing knowledge about how these town centres function and build on existing thinking and work to date, including the Local Development Plan, Town Centre Toolkit and Edinburgh Street Design Guidance.

The studies provide valuable information for all parties with an interest in maximising public life within Edinburgh’s town centres. They have already informed the preparation of Supplementary Guidance for each of the town centres, draft Locality Improvement Plans and a design and an improved public space trial project within Stockbridge.