Michelin-starred chef battles Edinburgh council over removal of £35,000 pub decking

The owners of a celebrated new pub on Edinburgh’s Shore are locked in a dispute with Edinburgh council over a retrospective planning application for a decked seating area outside the venue.

The founders of The Keelson spent £35,000 building the timber decking ahead of the pub’s opening in June, acting on advice they had received to apply retrospectively for permission from the council.

But last month, planning authorities rejected the application, stating the decking was an “inappropriate design” and damaged the character and appearance of the historic district.

A report published by planning officers concluded the decking failed to have “special regard to the special architectural features of the listed building” as well as the wider Leith conservation area.

The decking outside The Keelson | Supplied

It said: “The proposed decking appears prominent within the street and at odds with the prevalent appearance of the surrounding area.

“The design of the decking will disrupt the established uniformity of the building and will have a detrimental impact on the open space established within the site.”

The application also received a number of objections from neighbouring residents, who raised concerns about accessibility as well as the “incongruous” design.

The pub is now lodging an appeal against the council’s decision and has started a petition, already signed by over 900 people, to shore up local support to keep the decking in place.

Defending the decision, James Murray, the Michelin-starred chef who is one of three co-founders of the pub, said: “We’ve created 22 jobs here on the Shore, in a community that we live in ourselves.

“We’ve always wanted to be part of the Shore’s amazing hospitality scene and to create something that adds value to the area.

“We opened The Keelson on an incredibly tight turnaround - a project that would ordinarily have taken around 12 months was completed in four, in time for the World Cup and the festival season.

“The decking was something we discussed at length and took professional advice on. We understood that proceeding with the build while seeking retrospective planning permission was a risk, and we accepted that.

“Our intention was simply to create a safer, flatter and more easily managed space that would add value to the Shore.”

Mr Murray, who also co-founded the Leith restaurant Dogstar, said if the pub’s appeal fails it will reinstate the original façade and that would be “no problem” from their end.

Owners Kyle, James and Mike | Contributed

However, he criticised the way the council had dealt with the situation, saying attempts to get information and clarity had been “particularly difficult”.

He said: “We paid £8,000 for our application for the outdoor seating, only for the seating to be rejected, and it then took five months for that money to be refunded.

“That was money from our opening budget that we genuinely needed in our account, particularly if we weren’t going to be allowed to use the seating.

“On opening day, just eight minutes before we were due to open, a council officer arrived and told us, in what we felt was a very aggressive manner, that we could not use the decking.

“It was an incredibly stressful way to start what had already been an extremely challenging project.

“Since then, our main avenues of communication have been through Ben Macpherson’s office and, unfortunately, through lawyers at our own expense.

“We would much rather have been able to resolve these issues through straightforward communication.”

He added: “We completely understand that not everyone will like what we were trying to achieve, and we accept that there are different views on the development. But we genuinely believe we’ve invested heavily in the area, created 22 jobs and brought a new business to the Shore.

“We want to be part of the Shore’s hospitality scene and contribute positively to the community - whether there is decking or not doesn’t change that.”

Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.