AN author has launched a stinging criticism of plans for a new landmark hotel in the Scottish capital.

Edinburgh-based writer Candia McWilliam said the new "ribbon" hotel plan is an eyesore and are an insult to the city's architectural heritage.

The daughter of architectural writer and academic Colin McWilliam criticised the project after Edinburgh City Council approved the building that sits in the centre of the new £850 million St James Centre, which is due to be rebuilt over the next five years

More than 600 people signed a petition calling on MSPs to intervene after the hotel received backing earlier this month.

The redevelopment also means the removal of the brutalist former office block that crowns the shopping centre.

Ms McWilliam said: "The mooted St James’s Centre replacement and 'Ribbon Hotel' establish what might have seemed inconceivable something of graver insult to Calton Hill and both the Old and New Towns than the lumbering offence to both that has set up such a pervasive stink in its time and since, the extant, brutal St James Centre that itself seems to have been not placed but dumped upon the sightlines of the city.

"To be entrusted with such an asset as the city of Edinburgh and to squander it, even, it could appear, to labour to destroy it, must be accounted inexcusable folly.

"Need all enlightenments necessarily be followed by an age of wilful blindness?

"For can it be the case that our masters are so blind as to allow to be set at two great axes of the New Town something that for all the fancy talk of 'festival ribbons' and 'high fashion' resembles nothing so much as what citizens are coyly enjoined to pick up after their dogs?"

The Debatable Land author, who was blind for two years after a condition forced her eyelids to shut although her eyes themselves were perfect, added: "The gross architectural illiteracy wreaked upon the city itself and its citizens past present and future reaches a new, cloacal height."

Martin Perry, director of development at London-based TH Real Estate, declined to comment on Ms McWilliam's views.

But he said the project will secure 3,000 permanent jobs and revitalise an area of the city it is claimed is underused.

"We are really pleased with the hotel design our architects have developed," he said.

“It is an exciting piece of modern architecture which makes a bold statement and will ultimately become a destination in its own right."

The centre's flagship store John Lewis will remain open as the centre rebuild is carried out.

It is claimed the move will contribute millions of pounds to the local economy and attract new brands to Edinburgh, with research based on the development taking place finding that the city's tourist retail spend potential will rise from £278 million to £397m by 2030.

Architecture practice Jestico and Whiles has designed the hotel as a bundle of "coiled ribbons, creating a free-flowing design which will complement the development’s elegantly understated masterplan".

The hotel will include up to 210 beds, restaurants, bars and a rooftop terrace at uppermost levels, providing new panoramic views across the city.

New precincts would be formed in the new St James Quarter and up to 250 new homes, 30 restaurants and a multi-screen cinema as well as the five star hotel.

Ms McWilliam underwent an operation in 2009 which harvested tendons from her leg in order to suspend her eyelids open, thus curing her blindness.