Progress since August 2021


The community has been working with NHS Lothian about the future of the Astley Ainslie site since 2011.  Earlier work can be found by clicking here for 2011-2019 or here for 2019 – 2021

This page gives more recent updates. it is a series of mini reports given in reverse chronological order.

Progress is currently halted while other capital projects take priority in Lothian. However the Astley Ainslie redevelopment features in the Lothian Strategic Development Framework 2022-2027 for year 2/3 and in the Edinburgh Cityplan 2030.

January 2026

The Local Place Plan for the Astley Ainslie site is now available. It was produced by the Astley Ainslie Trust with input from AACEG. It is now with the Council planners.

You can see it here

October 2025

Following the drop-in session, AACT produced this report.

September 2025

The AA Community Trust is to hold a drop-in session to give the community a chance to discuss the future of the site. In 2019 the AAC Trust produced a Feasibility Study and the AACEG produced a draft Place Brief for the Astley Ainslie site and the aim now is to flesh out these plans and produce a Local Place Plan which is the current planning requirement. All interested residents are encouraged to drop in to the Eric Liddell Centre between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 27th September to give your views. See this flyer.

June 2025

NHS Lothian has applied to demolish the Millbank Pavilion but no Place Brief is yet in place for the site. To avoid piecemeal development, the Council requires an approved Place Brief before any development on the site. AACEG has sent in the following objection. 

Planning Application 25/02523/CON
Millbank Pavilion, Astley Ainslie Hospital, 143 Grange Loan EH9 2HL
Objection from the chair of the Astley Ainslie Community Engagement Group


I oppose planning application 25/02523/CON. Its timing prejudges the Place Brief for the Astley Ainslie site.

The Council’s 2030 City Plan covers the future of Astley Ainslie. It says in 3.14 “The Council will prepare a Place Brief for the site. The Place Brief will establish high level principles to inform future master planning and design processes. Local communities and key stakeholders will be consulted through the development of the Place Brief. Once approved the Place Brief will become nonstatutory planning guidance. Proposals for any part of this site in advance of an approved Place Brief will be considered as premature…. Proposals will also be assessed against the Astley Ainslie Development Principles and other relevant local plan policies.”

The Place Brief may identify value in the retention of the current Millbank Pavilion in whole or in part.

I believe that the application should be refused at least until the Place Brief is approved by the Edinburgh City Council
January 2025

Matthew Nicholas, as Chair of AACEG, was asked to write the following article for the Cockburn Association News and Views.

Astley Ainslie – Next Steps

A Local Place Plan will influence the Astley Ainslie site’s future

Astley Ainslie celebrated its centenary in 2023. Then 2024 launched decisions and further work which will radically change its future. The Edinburgh City Plan 2030 published in November includes the building of 500 houses and flats on the AAH Site. The Council in City Plan 2030 states that the Local Place Plan will influence their preparation of a Place Brief for the AA Site. This is an excellent opportunity for people and organisations to feed in their views.

Organisations have also been invited to draft  Local Place Plans (LPP) which will contribute to the City of Edinburgh Council’s City Plan 2040. Morningside Community Council (MCC) is now in the development stages for its plan and the Astley Ainslie Community Trust (AACT) has started also on an LLP. The two bodies will work together and involve other bodies such as the Astley Ainslie Community Engagement Group (AACEG) and the Grange Association. AACEG did an earlier Place Brief in 2019.

MCC are planning to do a survey for Morningside residents to influence its LPP. AACT will plan an oral history project which would collect spoken memories from people with connections to the Astley Ainslie Hospital over the years.

Professor Caroline Hiscox, Chief Executive of NHS Lothian writes “… our commitment to move services from the AAH site and ultimately dispose of, at least, the majority of this land.” The NHS reaffirmed its statuary commitment to fully engage with local communities. She writes that “there will be some coming and going from the site over the next five years or so”.   For example the Hermitage Medical Practice will be moving to the Astley Ainslie in early 2025. The NHS Greenspace charity has appointed a ranger who met the AACT members in November.

The Astley Ainslie Community Trust was formed in 2018 when sale appeared imminent. The Trust has been reinvigorating activity since, obtaining charity status and new Trustees. AACT seek to talk more with Development Trusts, Housing Association, City Planners and other potential users of the site. In the short term, AACT is focussed on making best use of the site for community spaces and community benefit.

The City Council asked local communities for Local Place Plans until August 2025. LPPs are a relatively new concept for Community groups to influence planning.   AACT considered that a LPP would benefit from input from a large range of organisations including the Cockburn Association. An example of the breadth of interest is the Trinity Network, a growing group of academics and varied interest bodies who are studying the stones from the former Trinity Church.   AACT have contacted 40 different stakeholders. It believes also it would be also be important to engage with potential anchor organisations.

Planning permission will be granted for development within the boundary of Astley Ainslie.The Council will prepare a Place Brief for the site. It will establish high level principles to inform future master planning and design processes. Local communities and key stakeholders will be consulted through the development of the Place Brief. Once approved the Place Brief will become non-statutory planning guidance. Proposals will also be assessed against local plan policies, for example on matters such as design, accessibility, landscaping and biodiversity.

Astley Ainslie Development Principles will  require a housing-led mixed-use development, which respects the mature landscape setting of the site, whilst also creating a sustainable place, and retaining its special character, through the provision of new connections, open spaces and other community infrastructure. The design should also preserve the listed buildings and their setting and reservation in situ of the sites of the 16th/17th century St Rogues Chapel and associated plague settlement and graveyard, with architectural fragments from the demolition of Trinity Church retained and conserved.

In Edinburgh there is a strong presumption in favour of retaining listed buildings with full consideration of the different approaches and options for reuse, adaptation and extension required before considering the case for demolition.  Applications to demolish listed buildings will be refused unless their loss has been fully considered and justified.

The Council’s existing policies would protect  the mature landscape setting of the site including its green and open space as well as its many high quality trees. The whole Astley Ainslie site is covered by a TPO.  It was originally five large villas with their gardens and a nine-hole ladies’ golf course. The trees and planting have been retained, together with much of the stone boundary walls. There are areas of historic interest on the site, including the site of the Chapel of St Roque which cared for patients with bubonic plague in the 16thcentury. Four of the five villas survive.

The Council has made a Tree Preservation Order (TPO 147) which includes about 1,600 trees within the hospital grounds. This constitutes the most extensive and complete Victorian urban treescape left in South Edinburgh.

Guest Blog: Matthew Nicholas, Chair of AACEG

December 2024

I recently became a Trustee of the Astley Ainslie Community Trust to help make a stronger partnership with the Astley Ainslie Community Engagement Group. In AACT we are in touch with Edinburgh City Council about our plan to draft a Local Place Plan for the site. The contents and format of the Place Plan will be different from the draft Brief we in AACEG produced in 2019. (You can find out more about local place plans by looking under that title on the Council’s website.) I want to make sure you have a chance to feed into the draft local place plan. AACT is meeting early in January to work on that.

In the meantime, you may want to see the passages about Astley Ainslie in the full documents in the Edinburgh City Plan 2030. You can reach them online on edinburgh.gov.uk/cityplan2030 – (pages 43/4 of the written statement, page 2 of appendix D and the map of the southeast). We have still no sense of the timetable or process the Council and NHS will take to move forward on the Astley Ainslie site since the publication of the City Plan 2030.

Matthew Nicholas, Chair of AACEG

September 2024

On 20 September our MSP, Daniel Johnson, led a meeting which included 3 Edinburgh City Councillors, the Astley Ainslie Community Trust, and people for several other bodies including Roger Kellett, Helen Zealley, Goff Cantley and me from AACEG.

Daniel’s invitation said: “In response to local interest and concerns about the future of the Astley Ainslie Hospital including Woodburn House and 56 Canaan Lane, you are warmly invited to join a stakeholder engagement meeting regarding the future of this important site.

As you will be aware, this is a large and much-loved site and there are rightly a lot of questions and concerns about its future with a lot of local interest and speculation in recent months. In light of this, I have organised this meeting, in conjunction with the Astley Ainsley Community Trust (AACT), to get an update from NHS Lothian and to discuss your hopes and expectations for the future of Astley Ainslie Hospital.

NHS Lothian have been invited to this meeting, or alternatively asked to provide a statement to inform the meeting of NHS Lothian’s intentions for the future of the site, including a description of the proposed timetable for the withdrawal of Inpatient, Outpatient and Support Services from the site and which Inpatient, Outpatient and Support Services and buildings are to be retained on the site.

There will then be a chance to hear from stakeholders such as yourselves – to share hopes, ideas, and expectations for the future of the site. We of course expect NHS Lothian to listen to local voices when making these decisions, and this meeting offers the chance to ensure they hear directly from you at this important stage in the process.”

We expect soon the publication of Edinburgh City Council’s City Plan 2030. You can find the current version of the draft and other documents here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cityplan2030. The next update here should give a link to the final documents.

The current draft says:

“Planning permission will be granted for development within the boundary of Astley Ainslie as defined on the Proposal Map provided it accords with a Place Brief, Astley Ainslie Development Principles and a subsequent master plan. 3.14 The Council will prepare a Place Brief for the site. The Place Brief will establish high level principles to inform future master planning and design processes. Local communities and key stakeholders will be consulted through the development of the Place Brief. Once approved the Place Brief will become nonstatutory planning guidance. Proposals for any part of this site in advance of an approved Place Brief will be considered as premature in line with Policy Env 2. Proposals will also be assessed against the Astley Ainslie Development Principles and other relevant local plan policies, for example on matters such as design, accessibility, landscaping and biodiversity.”

It goes on to mention requirements including:

*Provision of several pedestrian/cycle routes through the site linking to Canaan Lane, Cluny Place, South Oswald Road, Grange Loan to the east of the site and at Whitehouse Loan.

* A housing-led mixed-use development… which respects the mature landscape setting of the site, whilst also creating a sustainable place, and retaining its special character, through the provision of new connections, open spaces and other community infrastructure.

* Provide or contribute towards education, and healthcare infrastructure and community facilities.

* Provide or contribute towards the following active travel infrastructure connections in the vicinity

* That new outdoor plays facilities needed on site to ensure all new homes in the development are adequately served by a play facilities in line with the requirements of the Council’s Open Space Strategy.

*Daylight covered sections of the Jordan Burn, with any new development also set back at least 15m from the top of the bank to the Burn.

We hope to agree with others who were at the meeting some stronger joint activity. This should cover better engagement by the NHS with the AACEG and others on access and maintenance of the site as it exists as well as their engagement in the development of the site’s future. We will be contacting the newly appointed NHS Lothian Charity Ranger for the site to discuss how we will work with her.

The minutes of this meeting can be seen here.

October 2023

“To commemorate 100 years of Astley Ainslie Hospital, hospital staff have compiled and curated an exhibition to showcase care, compassion and innovation since the hospital first opened in 1923.

The exhibition will be in the Dining Room of Blackford Pavilion in Astley Ainslie Hospital and will launch on 10th October 2023 which is exactly 100 years from the first patients being admitted to the hospital. The indoor exhibition will be accessible Monday to Friday 8.30am to 2.30pm and there will also be images displayed on the outside windows which can be viewed any time.

The exhibition has historical information and images from across the last 100 years to celebrate key events, changes and developments”

Panels from the exhibition

July 2023

NHS Lothian Charity is the official charity of NHS Lothian.  It describes itself as “dedicated to supporting NHS Lothian patients and staff and improving health and wellbeing for the people of Edinburgh and the Lothians.”

NHS Lothian Charity have now published their Greenspace Management Plan for the Astley Ainslie.The plan’s recommendations include:

We welcome the Plan which implies that NHS Lothian has no immediate plans for closing and selling the estate.  We are disappointed, however, that the Astley Ainslie Community Engagement Group, as the official group for consultation with the community about redevelopment of the Astley Ainslie, was not involved in the initial discussions.

March 2023

Recently Scottish Ministers launched the examination of Edinburgh City Council’s Proposed City Plan 2030.  The proposed plan was submitted last December.  It sets out which types of development should take place where, and which areas should be protected from development. You can see it at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cityplan2030. It covers Astley Ainslie on pages 44-45.

We have made sure that the examination team know about the AACEG and our keenness to be involved. 

We had hoped already to have discussions with both the Council and the NHS following a virtual meeting with the Council last Autumn and further contact Councillor Tim Pogson had made more recently with both bodies.

July 2022

After a meeting of the AACEG’s committee, Matthew Nicholas from the Grange Association took over as the new chair of AACEG following Roger.

We wrote to Iain Graham at NHS Lothian to say that we read with interest the coverage of the future of Ainslie Astley in the new Lothian Strategic Development Framework 2022-2027. The Framework says, under Priority 2 (NHS Lothian as an Anchor Institution to reduce inequalities) that proposals for Astley Ainslie Hospital development will be there in years 2/3. Francis Newton from Edinburgh City Council has helpfully suggested a meeting with him after the summer holidays.

After the election of the current City Councillors five of the eight covering the two wards covering Astley Ainslie are new to their roles. We have written to them to brief them on AACEG’s role.

Matthew will be using our new email address: aah@grangeassociation.org.

December 2021

A small “executive” group of AACEG had an online meeting. There was still no response to Daniel Johnson’s letter to NHS Lothian after 3 1/2 months This means there is no information about how long the delay in arranging the sale will be. It is essential that AACEG has input to the Place Brief so it was agreed that AACEG should continue and have 6 monthly meetings. It was agreed that the point of contact for NHS Lothian should be the email address aah@grangeassociation.com. (Since then the address has changed to aah@grangeassociation.org). Roger plans to step down when a successor can be found. When he retires, he will pass this email address on to his successor who would liaise with the community councils. 

There was discussion about the draft City Plan 2030. Roger will send in a response emphasising the importance of affordable housing, public transport, shops, rights of way, tree protection, carbon neutral housing, schools, healthcare and no student flats. He would stress that public access should be protected.

August 2021

A small group of AACEG and AACT had a virtual meeting with Daniel Johnson MSP at the beginning of August. Daniel was able to tell us:-

We agreed:-