4 Apr 2017

The Scottish Conservatives have welcomed the news that a major new film studio looks set to receive planning permission after ministers said they were minded to approve it.

The decision about whether to give the go ahead on the proposed £55 million Pentland Studio on the outskirts of Edinburgh had been with the Scottish Government for months, despite all funding being in place.

But developers received notice from the Scottish Government’s chief planner that ministers were intending to approve the application, subject to conditions and the completion of a planning obligation.

One of these conditions related to improving infrastructure on the Edinburgh city by-pass, but if completed it would provide Scotland with a world class 96-acre site with a water stage and six sound stages.

The latest instalment of the Avengers franchise recently began filming in Edinburgh, but not all of the filming can take place in Scotland due to the lack of a world leading film studio.

It is hoped that once completed, the new facilities could attract more programmes to be shot in Scotland, and help retain industry expertise.

Scottish Conservative culture spokesman Jackson Carlaw, who recently raised the matter of studio capacity at FMQs, said:

“Having dragged their feet for months I’m delighted that the Scottish Government has seen sense and decided to give this project the go ahead.

“Provided that the conditions of the approval are met, this should provide Scotland with an international, world leading film studio complex.

“I have no doubt that this will help attract major film and television productions to Scotland, and finally allow us to match and exceed facilities elsewhere in the UK.

“It will also give us a real opportunity to develop and nurture creative arts skills in Scotland, and give us the ability to retain talent rather than see it go elsewhere.

“Once finished, this new development will see us have a capacity and talent base to match the unrivalled variety of our natural landscape locations.”

The Scottish Conservatives urged the SNP to approve the application back in January:
http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2017/01/ministers-must-reveal-fate-of-55m-film-studio/

Barbara Keeley MP,
Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, commenting on the NHS report on Out of Area
Placements In Mental Health Services for February, said:

“These statistics show yet another rise in the number of mental health patients
being treated hundreds of miles away from their homes due to lack of beds in
their local area. These are some of the most vulnerable people in our
communities and the fact that some are having to go over 180 miles from where
they live just to get a bed creates extra pressures on them and their families.

“Last week’s NHS Five Year Forward View report says that some areas of the NHS
have:  ‘…been living off bail-outs arbitrarily taken from other parts of
the country or from services such as mental health’.  Using mental health
budgets to plug financial black holes elsewhere is leading to issues like these
out of area placements.

“The Tory government has talked a lot about parity of esteem between physical
and mental health but the reality is simply not matching the rhetoric. It’s
time the Government ended the warm words and started giving mental health
services the money they need.”