Travellers ordered to leave site earmarked for £100m art gallery

A judge has given permission for a traveller family to be evicted from a site earmarked as a new home for Scotland's national art collections in Edinburgh.

Lawyers for the Scottish government said the man, woman and 11 children, along with a number of "itinerant workers" had "no right or entitlement" to occupy the future site of The Art Works project in Granton.

The family argued that being removed from the site without a "culturally appropriate" alternative being provided would breach their human rights.

However, in a judgement issued at the Court of Session, Lady Tait ordered the family to leave the site immediately and said the government's claim on the land was "legitimate".

Planning approval for The Art Works was granted by City of Edinburgh Council in October 2023.

The £100m development, scheduled to open in 2029, will house a facility capable of storing more than 130,000 works from Scotland's national collection when not on display in a conventional gallery, while allowing the public to view them.

It will sit on a brownfield site, near the current National Museums Collection Centre and forms part of a wider regeneration of the area.

Local residents had complained about the site being occupied by travellers, citing issues with waste and fires being set.

The family, who lived at the site across three caravans, said they had "struggled" throughout their entire lives to find safe sites to stay on and had encountered racism.

The father, who was not named, said there was no waste collection at the site and that had forced them to burn waste.

He added that "occasional campfires" were held, but that these were "central to traveller culture" and denied that tyres or vehicles had been burned and PVC had not been melted to "get copper cabling".

The court heard there were currently no traveller sites in Edinburgh with available space.

The family's lawyer, Richard Pugh KC, argued that removing the family without having an alternative place to relocate to directly breached articles eight and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the rights to a family life and the right to not be unlawfully discriminated against.

It was also argued that it would breach the children of the family's rights under a piece of legislation called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

In her judgement, Lady Tait wrote that it was City of Edinburgh Council's responsibility to support the family after eviction.

However, she wrote that it was not in the best interests of the children to remain at the site.

Finding in favour of Scottish ministers, she said the human rights of the travellers were engaged by the proposed eviction but concluded that interference in their rights was justified and proportionate.

Lady Tait said the Scottish government's need to recover the land was legitimate and the family would have to leave the site with "immediate effect".

She added: "The children do not have access to basic sanitation.

"Their current living arrangements give rise to concerns for their safety as they live on an insecure site, occupied by an itinerant community, and they require to go outside for the toilet at night.

"I conclude that there is no less intrusive measure than eviction and that the importance and urgency of the petitioners' objectives outweigh the severity."