A RESTAURANT in Edinburgh has been ordered to remove signage installed on a listed building “without consent”.
Japanese sushi restaurant Don@Tokyo, which is less than half a mile from Edinburgh Castle, has been ordered to remove its signage within three months by a Scottish Government reporter.
The eatery is at 165 Lothian Road and sits within a Grade B-listed building. According to Historic Environment Scotland, it forms part of an “impressive palace block in an important situation”.
According to a report issued by the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division on May 7, installing the signage represented an “alleged breach of listed building control”.
The report says a previous ruling ordering the signage to be removed had been appealed on two bases.
The first was that the three months given to remove the signage fell “short of what should reasonably be allowed”, while the second was that removing the signage would not restore “the character of the building to its former state”.
However, the Scottish Government’s official rejected the appeal, saying it failed on both grounds.
The report noted: “The appellant has not provided any information to support their position that the time to comply with the notice [three months] is too short, nor stated what they consider would be a reasonable time for compliance.”
It added: “The visual dominance of the illuminated lettering, which occupies more than two thirds of the fascia depth, is incompatible with the historic character of the listed building.
“It stands to reason that the removal of the illuminated lettering would restore the character of the listed building.”
A separate report also published on May 7 noted that the appellant had put in a “retrospective advertisement consent application for the signage”.
It added: “However, this is a separate matter for the council to determine and does not affect my consideration of this appeal.”
A spokesperson from Don@Tokyo told The National: "I will speak to my design company to see how we are going to [remove the signage]."
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