The public has voted overwhelmingly in favour of keeping Dundee’s Hilltown Arches.
A poll on the Dundee City Council website found 66% of those who voted wanted the arches to remain and to be repaired by the local authority.
The results of the community consultation, which took place over the last few months, were revealed at Coldside Community Forum’s annual meeting.
Only 27% of people were in favour of having the arches demolished and replaced with something else, while 7% wanted the arches in the worst condition to be demolished and the rest repaired.
The poll was launched to gather the community’s views after the structures fell into disrepair and were targeted by vandals.
Elaine Pratt, community officer for Coldside, said she had expected a closer result but believes the landmarks have now grown on people.
She said: “I was a little bit shocked, to be honest, at the huge margin between the results.
“I was really expecting a much tighter contest. It just shows how much people have come to love them.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say they really like them and that they’d be sad if they went.”
The positive response from the community means work will be carried out to repair and revitalise the landmarks. Elaine said: “The next step will be to pull together the community and see where we can get funding from to do the repairs and to see what it is we actually need to do to the arches to make them better.”
The online polling tool could now be rolled out to other consultations on council plans in Dundee.
“We were really happy to see the turnout from the poll on the website,” Elaine added.
“There were a lot of people who took part and it’s proved to be a really useful resource.
“We’ll hope to use it again in the future for the public consultation for proposed houses on Alexander Street.”