Work is expected to begin this week to reinstall a cross at a Dundee church after a planning mishap.
Members of the board of Gilfillan Memorial Church installed a 12ft cross on the rear of their building overlooking Dock Street in October last year.
But it was taken down from the B-listed Whitehall Crescent building just a month later as the church had not sought planning permission for the religious icon.
The structure was originally put up between the second and third floors of the church, but permission is required for any large signs or advertising billboards put up on the side of buildings.
Church interiors are exempt from listed building controls due to what is known as ecclesiastical exemption. However, alterations to the exterior of a church must still go through the planning system.
The church submitted a planning application in March and Dundee City Council received notification permission had been granted under delegated powers on April 17.
The decision notice stated: “The application has been granted because the proposed wooden cross would maintain the character of Gilfillan Memorial Church and the surrounding central conservation area.”
Church secretary Bill Allan said the work was “in hand” and is scheduled to begin some time this week – weather permitting.
“I imagine it wouldn’t be very much fun up there today,” he said on Monday, as Storm Ophelia approached.
When they were told to take down the cross, Mr Allan said: “We have learned our lesson. You’ve got to do these things properly.”
The work should only take a day as the fixings from when it was last erected are still in place.
The congregational church was built in 1887 in memory of George Gilfillan, a preacher and poet who counted both William McGonagall and Thomas de Quincy, the writer of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, among his friends.
The building gained listed status in 1965.
