A bid to bulldoze a landmark Perth church has stalled after fierce criticism from Scotland’s heritage watchdog and council planning chiefs.
The YMCA has been forced to withdraw its bid to tear down the 130-year-old St Andrew’s and St Stephen’s Parish Church on Atholl Street.
They want to clear the derelict building and make way for a new operations centre and 21 flats. The plan also involves tearing down a rundown tenement block on North William Street.
The Gothic church, which is owned by the charity, is on the official buildings at risk register and has been dubbed “unusable” and “unsafe”.
However, planning officers have now told the charity it cannot support its proposal.
The plan faces further criticism from Historic Environment Scotland, the authority which, five years ago, blocked plans to demolish Perth City Hall. The group claims the destruction of the church would be a “significant loss” for the city.
The YMCA said it has gone back to the drawing board and aims to submit a new proposal to council bosses in the coming weeks. The original plan, tabled in August last year, will be scrapped.
In a letter to agents for the Christian charity, the council’s conservation officer Diane Barbary said: “The current proposal for the replacement is not considered satisfactory as a replacement for the listed former church and tenement in such a prominent location in the Perth conservation area.”
She said that a redesign and a brand new planning application was needed.
Ms Barbary wrote: “If your client does not wish to take this course of action, I will be determining the current applications with a recommendation of refusal.”
An HES spokesman added: “The removal of these buildings would be a significant loss to Perth’s historic centre and we would continue to encourage the full consideration of alternative options.
“In particular, we would be recommend that the scheme for conservation of the corner tenement is reconsidered since it appears to be the more viable historic building within the site.”
He added: “If the council is satisfied that retention of the church is clearly not feasible, opportunities for salvage and reuse of its high quality stonework should be considered.
“Our decision not to object should not be taken as our support of the proposals.”
Foulin and Bell Architects, which drew up the plan for the YMCA, set out its justification in a letter to planners.
A spokesman for the firm said: “Sadly, the previous 13 years of limited repairs and constant striving to provide possible options for the re-use of the existing buildings and/or look for possible sources of grant assistance, partnership funding or, latterly, restoring purchasers, have served to illustrate the point that an economically viable solution for the repair and restoration of the existing buildings is not forthcoming.
“The buildings continue to deteriorate, meanwhile, to the point that it is considered highly unlikely that a restoring purchaser will ever be found within the current, depressed construction market.”
