EDINBURGH’S iconic Royal High School building will not be turned into a six star luxury hotel charging £436 per night after councillors unanimously rejected an “abhorrent” plan yesterday.

The Development Management Sub-Committee rejected the £75 million plan to build extensions on to the School which was designed by Thomas Hamilton and opened to pupils in 1829.

The classical building is often credited with helping Edinburgh gain its name of the “Athens of the North” and its status as a masterpiece and “one of the most important buildings in Scotland” was the only thing everyone in the council chamber could agree upon.

READ MORE: A short history of the Royal High School

In unprecedented scenes during the day-long meeting, spectators in the galleries jeered developers Duddingston House Properties (DHP) and Urbanist Hotels when they made their submission and applauded when councillors tore into the applicants’ case, then cheered and applauded when the two votes to reject the development were both unanimous.

As The National reported yesterday, the change of membership brought about a change of heart on the part of the committee which in December 2015 had rejected the original application for a 147 bedroom hotel by a single vote.

Yesterday, after a massive public campaign against the application – more than 3200 objections against 283 letters of support – the committee met again with a strong recommendation from planning officials to refuse the Planning and Listed Building applications, which themselves cost £3m to prepare, for a 127 bedroom hotel.

The new plan still included extensions to the building and necessitated demolition of other buildings on the Calton Hill site, and officials – backed by the city’s conservation groups – said “the development would cause permanent and irreversible damage”.

Council members lined up to pour criticism on the application, especially after speakers representing the developers accused planning officials of bias and objectors of providing misleading images and “skewed” views.

Edinburgh World Heritage, which superintends the city’s world heritage site and was concerned that going ahead with the plan would lose that status, was specifically accused by DHP’s David Orr of providing a “gross misrepresentation” with “falsified images”, while he dismissed the council planners’ report as “biased” and “contrived and wrong”.

Under questioning he admitted the possible room price was up to £436 per night, and said that Edinburgh was “not keeping up” with other cities that have Rosewood luxury hotels.

Councillors for the area made telling interventions. Karen Doran said: “My mailbox has been crammed with letters of objections. At no time have I received a letter of support. The proposal is insensitive and totally inappropriate.”

Alasdair Rankin said he too had received many objections from residents and organisations and not one piece of support, adding: “I have heard unanimously from people from all walks of life that they do not want to see Edinburgh damaged in that way.”

Joanne Mowat said it had been the “number one issue” on the doorstep prior to the May council elections.

After hearing all the evidence, convener Lewis Ritchie led the way with his criticism: “What makes me disappointed is the fact that of a 40 minute presentation you spent 30 minutes of it criticising our officers, the world heritage bodies and the music school.”

He then said that while there would be economic benefit to the city from the hotel, the design was “one of the most abhorrent and most ugly buildings that I have ever seen”.

Councillor Ian Campbell said that if the developers had taken the time to “open their doors and taken the right advice” they could have got a plan that would serve the city.

Green councillor Steve Burgess said the hotel might bring economic benefit “but you have to weigh that up against the possible detrimental impact.”

After the unanimous rejection, David Orr said for the developers: “It is especially disappointing and worrying that this decision was made amidst a backdrop of wilful misrepresentation and misleading campaigning by Edinburgh World Heritage and the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland.”

Welcoming the decision, a spokesman for Edinburgh World Heritage said: “At no stage were images deliberately falsified by Edinburgh World Heritage. The images generated by the developer themselves more than adequately demonstrate the inappropriateness of the hotel proposal in terms of both scale, design and lack of respect for the unique World Heritage setting.”

William Gray Muir of the Royal High School Preservation Trust, which has planning permission for the music school site, said: “The applicants angrily attacked all of the parties who disagreed with them, and showed an alarming lack of respect for the process, the consultees and the people of Edinburgh. Well, the people of Edinburgh and their appointed representatives have given their unequivocal verdict.”