A MAN who lived in a tree to protest against the development of a £65 million hotel has lost a legal battle to stop the project.

Simon Byrom was sleeping in a tree 20ft above ground to prevent any work from being carried out on the site of a proposed 225-bedroom hotel in Edinburgh.

Developers Dreamvale Properties won a court order to get him removed from the site in the Grassmarket area earlier this year.

Aided by £27,000 raised through a crowdfunding campaign, Mr Byrom then lodged a judicial review at the Court of Session against Edinburgh City Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the development.

Local campaigners believe the site to be public land and hit out at the council’s decision last year as they feel it is a threat to the city’s Central Library, which was funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Local community council member has lived on the fringes of the Old Town for most of his life, claimed in court it would spoil views from the library and would damage air quality.

However judge Lady Wise rejected his bid to stop the project following a hearing at Scotland’s highest court.

She said: “The focus of the petitioner’s current argument is the impact of the development on views from within the library. This was one of a number of matters raised before the committee.

“In my view, the absence of specific reference to views from inside the library in the planning report and in the decision."