Questions to Be Answered Before Perth City Hall Demolition Proceeds

Summary

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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.

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Questions to Be Answered Before Perth City Hall Demolition Proceeds

Why were they doing this? Was it a matter of other local trading ...

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