town centres – 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.

Princes Street and Waverley Valley Strategy – Come and speak to the team

*The Waverley Valley includes East and West Princes Street Gardens, including the Ross Bandstand, Waverley Station, Waverley Market and East Market Street.*

Residents, businesses and other interested groups are being asked to comment on a strategy to revitalise Princes Street and the wider Waverley Valley to create a more vibrant and welcoming city centre.

The new vision will guide the long-term regeneration of this part of the city centre, including promoting a mix of shops and services for residents and visitors, protecting the area’s historic and architectural importance, supporting businesses to be more climate resilient, and encouraging temporary ‘pop-up’ uses within vacant units

A 12-week consultation on the draft Princes Street and Waverly Valley Strategy began in November. You can comment on any or all of the proposals on our online survey until 21 Feb 2025.

Come and speak to the team

Over the next few weeks we are holding in-person drop-in sessions for anyone to come and speak to the team:

Thursday 16 January – 10am to 2pm – Central Library foyer, 7-9 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EG

Cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances

Wednesday 29 January – 3pm to 7pm – Waverley Station main concourse

Monday 3 February – 1pm to 5pm – City Arts Centre, 2 Market Street, EH1 1DE

The draft strategy aims to:

Create a more accessible city centre – The masterplan for comment recommends guiding the area from the West End of Princes Street along to Waverley Station to become more accessible, with improvements such as additional ramp access to Princes Street Gardens, a footbridge over the Waverley Valley, more public spaces to enjoy, an improved crossing and pedestrian improvements to Castle Street, the Mound Precinct, and Waverley Bridge.
Revitalise Princes Street – Working with developers, the strategy suggests improvements to Princes Street with temporary pop-up premises, building wraps and artwork and encourages mixed-uses for the prominent high street. Improvements to historic buildings, including the Ross Bandstand, are also suggested to create better opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy the area.
Protect green spaces – The strategy looks to integrate climate resilience and biodiversity measures to protect the existing Waverley Valley and Gardens from climate change and to plant more trees and flowers – also promoting sustainable transport options and the retrofitting of historic buildings in line with Edinburgh’s net zero aims.
Make improvements to Waverley Station – Shape the future of Waverley Station and the area around it. Its key position between the Old and New Towns makes the station a vital connection between the Old and New Towns. Network Rail’s Waverley Masterplan recognises the need to restore and modernise the station.

Find out more at edinburgh.gov.uk/princesstreet

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.