Affordable homes included in Edinburgh’s Sick Kids community buy-out bid

Residents living near the site are forming a new community body, the Marchmont & Sciennes Development Trust, to register an interest in the site under the Scottish Government’s community right-to-buy legislation.

The group aims to buy the site when the hospital moves to a new premises next year and it plans to gather signatures on a petition to show the level of support for going forward with the right-to-buy process.

Tom Bristow, one of the directors of the new trust, said conversations had been going on between the community and NHS Lothian about the future of the site for some time.

“You can sit and wait for them to make their decisions or you can work on it yourself,” he told The Scotsman.

Mr Bristow said people in Marchmont/Sciennes had been inspired by the Action Porty group in Portobello whose plans to take over former Portobello Old Parish Church are set to become the first urban community buy-out under the latest legislation.

“People were saying we should think about that as well.”

The hospital was put on the market at the end of last year and experts predicted there would be developers “queuing up” to buy it for a prime-site housing development. It is expected to sell for tens of millions of pounds.

Staff at the Sick Kids are preparing to move to a new purpose-built, £150 million building next door to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at Little France in spring next year.

Mr Bristow said a meeting in November had drawn up ideas the community wanted to see included in redevelopment of the Sciennes site, including housing, community enterprise and healthcare.

He added: “People were not 100 per cent sure their feelings would be represented on that. The community right-to-buy is one process that might address that.

“We’re petitioning the community over the next ten days to see what interest there is.”

A meeting to outline the opportunity is to be held at the German church, Chalmers Crescent, next Tuesday at 7pm.

Robert McDowell, the owner of cultural and festival venue Summerhall, has outlined plans to transform the hospital into a museum and gallery.

He has submitted a bid document to NHS Lothian, which outlines a plan to use the building as a gallery for children’s art as well as a museum of the Edinburgh Festival, a plan he has long mooted.