The controversial old Royal High School hotel plan has been recommended for rejection by planners.

Despite the joint developer Urbanist Hotels and Duddingston House Properties claiming support from residents in the Scottish capital after having held a series of consultation meetings and viewings, the judgement from officials is negative.

A rival plan was also submitted for a concert hall by a music school and it is still to be considered.

Edinburgh City Council said the famous derelict neoclassical Thomas Hamilton building is under conditional lease to the Urbanist team in a £75 million plan to convert the A-Listed architectural masterpiece into a hotel with "Inca style" terraces.

But planning officials have now recommended the council steps back from the deal that was hailed as the answer to its high upkeep because of the crumbling condition of the buildings.

The hotel plans - the new foyer is portrayed below - were challenged by Unesco, which has the right to remove the city's World Heritage Site status.

The Herald:

Unesco advisers called for an investigation into how plans including the old Royal High hotel are affecting the heritage value of the Scottish capital.

Then the city's St Mary’s Music School put in a separate bid to be rehoused in the Calton Hill landmark.

William Gray Muir, chairman of the trust formed to push the new project, put forward plans for a concert hall in the main building.

The music school  proposals, funded by the philanthropic Dunard Fund, are for the creation of three new public performance spaces, including a 300-seat concert hall in the former debating chamber that was once earmarked as the new Scottish Parliament.

However, the hotel developer said more than half of 580 visitors to an exhibition at the site completed a questionnaire and 79 per cent of them were "generally in favour of the redevelopment proposals", with over 75 per cent agreeing that a world-class hotel would be an appropriate use for the well-known Edinburgh landmark.

Urbanist and Duddington's plans for a six-star hotel would save Hamilton's building, it was claimed.

When operational the hotel could create 640 local jobs and contribute on average £27 million annually to the local economy.

Mr Gray Muir, chairman of the Royal High School Preservation Trust, which earlier released its plan, below, said that building should "return to its rightful position at the cultural heart of Edinburgh".

The Herald:

David Orr of the Urbanist Group, who brought Harvey Nichols to Edinburgh and was the driving force behind the Mint Hotel Group, said that he believed the revamp could make the site the "beating heart" of that part of the city.

A spokesman for the developer said that "the team are studying the report in detail and will issue a response in due course".

Planners said: “The development would cause permanent and irreversible damage.

“The adverse impacts on the character and setting of listed buildings, the New Town Conservation Area, the designed landscape of Calton Hill and the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site would not be mitigated by the sophisticated design of the proposed extensions.

“Put simply, too much building is being proposed for this highly sensitive site."

The report added: "The benefits to the city's economy and to tourism through bringing an at risk building back into a sustainable long term use are not outweighed by the very significant harm to built heritage and landscape of the city.

"In coming to this conclusion, regard has been had to the exceptional architectural and historic interest of the Royal High School and the quality of its surrounding environment.

A spokesman said: “Councillors will consider officers’ recommendations at committee next Thursday, December 17.”