An Edinburgh woman who was forced to repaint her bright pink door after a protracted row with her local council is facing a further investigation into her interpretation of “off-white”.
Miranda Dickson painted her door pink when she renovated her childhood home in Drummond Place, situated within the Unesco world heritage-listed New Town area of the city, after the death of her parents.
After the first complaint she repainted the pink door green, a colour likewise rejected by the council, which adheres to strict guidelines for conservation areas, then changed it again to a colour she describes as off-white.
But a spokesperson for Edinburgh city council confirmed it had received a new complaint alleging that the door had been repainted pink. “We’re currently looking into this and so can’t say more at this time,” they said.
Dickson told the Guardian she thought it was “sad” that someone had again felt the need to complain. “There are so many more serious issues to get energetic about other than my front door,” she said.
She pointed out that her door was now “identical to a door depicted on page 45 of the official Edinburgh New Town conservation appraisal, so I’m struggling to see what is actually wrong with the new door colour from a council point of view.”
Dickson, who had her door professionally painted pink in 2021, first received an enforcement notice last year stating that the colour did not meet the standards of a house in the world heritage site and telling her to return it to its original colour of white or apply for planning permission.
After a failed appeal, Dickson then applied for planning permission to paint it green, which she did in April before she knew the outcome of the application because the enforcement deadline was looming. But the green colour was also rejected.
Dickson has previously said the council’s colour policy was “unclear” and questioned why she had been singled out when there were many other brightly coloured doors in the area.
The council says it can only follow up once a complaint has been made. Its guidelines for conservation areas state that “doors should be painted in an appropriate dark and muted colours”.
