John Phelan of the Scottish Civic Trust rightly questions the cavalier attitude of Perth's councillors to the built heritage which they are legally entrusted with safeguarding (Letters, November, 18).
Perth City Hall may have been scandalously neglected, but it is an important B-listed public building within a historic urban setting, and the idea that it should become another windswept plaza like Edinburgh’s tacky Festival Square displays an alarming dearth of imagination on the part of those who wish to destroy it.
The story of this building’s recent decline must be properly investigated. There were at least three respondents to the council’s advertisement for prospective lessees some years ago. At least one, and possibly two, of these respondents came forward with fully-funded proposals, yet Perth’s planners selected a company, Wharfside, which had no funding, and was banking on the prospect of sufficient pre-let interest to get the ball rolling. In selecting Wharfside, the planners were exposing the authority to an unwarranted level of risk, without any discernible benefits.
Why were they doing this? Was it a matter of other local trading interests being unhappy about the potential of competition from other retailers? If so, this was lamentably short-sighted, for few towns are as well placed as Perth to attract shoppers from the Fife and Kinross catchment area who would prefer to avoid the shopping war zone that is now Edinburgh.
Before a final decision is made on this matter, a thorough investigation ought to be carried out by some competent and independent body. There should be no question of the demolition of this fine building being countenanced until all questions have been answered.
David J Black,
5/1 Spylaw House, Edinburgh.
DOES John Phelan realise that if the space occupied by Perth City Hall were vacant, and a planning application was submitted to build it, Historic Scotland would, as a statutory consultee, refuse the application point blank? The reason for this is that, in terms of its current protocols, the hall would “adversely affect the setting of an A grade listed building”. That building would be St John’s Kirk which the hall has been “adversely affecting” and preventing people viewing satisfactorily for about 100 years.
Councillor Alan Grant,
Deputy Leader, Perth and Kinross SNP Group, 2 High Street, Perth.
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