Plans to add an extra floor and balcony to a Victorian Edinburgh tenement described by neighbours as "a mixture of greed, selfishness and stupidity" have been refused by Edinburgh City Council.
The application for a roof extension in Falcon Avenue was lodged in December by occupants who said they needed extra space for their "growing family".
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Their proposals sought to replace the existing pointed roof of the four-storey Morningside block with a flat roof to make space for additional bedrooms and a top floor balcony.
A planning statement submitted to the council said the works "look to preserve the features of the existing tenement and will tie in well with the character and appearance the area".
It added: "The extension will be accessed through a new staircase positioned centrally to the existing flat.
"Communal roof access to the remainder of the roof and to the roof of the extension will be retained as existing."
But residents living in the neighbouring flats lined up to slam the proposed changes — with 20 objections received by the council over the past three months.
Someone living in a top floor flat next door said they "had to check it wasn't April the 1st" when they first saw the application.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," they added. "Never mind the fact that to my mind, the application is a mixture of greed, selfishness and stupidity all rolled into one.
"These buildings are over a hundred years old and were never built for five levels. Aesthetically it looks out of place. No other tenement in Morningside or the surrounding area has this kind of extension and therefore it would be setting an ugly precedent."
The furious neighbour also raised concerns about increased security risks, saying that the balcony would give people "easy access to the rooftops".
They said: "We have already suffered a break in through a skylight at this address," adding: "To think that this could be compromised by someone with the access to walk on it as they please or even the spillover from the workmen and their materials as they build the extension is not on.
"I suspect I will not be alone in my amazement that someone would have the audacity to suggest this monstrosity."
Another Falcon Avenue resident wrote: "Edinburgh is a city with an iconic skyline. Tenement buildings are a strong identity of the city.
"The tenement flats in Falcon Avenue were built in approx 1900. To have a modern block stacked on top of a Victorian building, 120 years later, seems absurd and highly unsightly.
"It is concerning to think of the precedent this could set and the resulting effect on the look of Edinburgh's tenements if owners and speculators see they can double their profits and values by crudely attaching modern blocks to our historic old tenement buildings."
They added that the idea of her street being turned into a "tasteless mishmash of modern shanty blocks" is "highly offensive".
Others complained the extension would reduce sunlight to their property and create problems with the building's plumbing, with some worried that activity on the new balcony would bring noise issues.
However the applicants argued there is precedent for the works, citing other applications for tenement roof extensions approved by Edinburgh City Council in recent years.
They said: "We believe the contemporary proposals are of an acceptable scale, form and design and being set back the proposals will not be read from any public streets and will not result in any issues relating to privacy, overshadowing or noise."
Planning officers refused permission on Thursday (March 3), saying the "design and form, choice of materials and positioning is not compatible with the character of the existing building".
They added: "It will result in an unreasonable loss of natural light to neighbouring properties and it will be detrimental to neighbourhood character."
