Charity given four years to remove fence

The city council issued the Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar with an enforcement notice over the fence, for which it had not gained planning permission.

The local authority said it had to remove the fence within two months, a timescale the organisation – which works with people with learning disabilities – found unacceptable.

It appealed to the Scottish Government for an extension, and this week the planning reporter agreed to give the charity four years to deal with it.

A grass court which was built over to make the fence will also have to be reinstated.

The Holyrood planning reporter said: “I direct that the enforcement notice be upheld subject to the variation of the terms of the notice by replacing the words ‘two months’ with the words ‘four years’.”