The cost of shoring up the crumbling listed building at the top of Jedburgh High Street in a saga that has so far lasted for four long years now stands at £380,000 with an additional £589,000 required for the anticipated demolition of the dangerous four-storey tenement.
Scottish Borders Council, which is currently paying the bills from contractors and consultants as well as the hire of scaffolding to keep 2 High Street from collapsing into the road, has released a thick file of correspondence in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Many of the 174 pages of emails and letters relate to the frequent contacts between the local authority and the main five shop and flat owners who, according to a council report "all vacated their properties effectively leaving the council to proceed with the necessary works in line with formal notices that had been served". There are 15 interested parties in total.
The locations of the absent owners are care of an Edinburgh law firm, Aberdeen, Ripon, Brechin and Ballymena.
SBC planners are currently processing an application for listed building consent to bulldoze the Victorian edifice which is riddled with rot and has 'moved' several times since a Dangerous Building notice was slapped on it in June 2015.
According to a written submission, Scottish Civic Trust director Dr Susan O'Connor declared: "This is a sorry story of inaction by neglectful ownership of an important building in the townscape of central Jedburgh."
The district valuer has indicated the C listed building, designed by Glasgow architects, has no value "unless the shops and flats can be brought back into economic use".
Letters sent to all of the owners by the council soon after the first pieces of masonry fell from the structure warned that the Dangerous Building notice placed legal obligations on the proprietors to have all necessary works undertaken within a prescribed period.
That correspondence added: "If the works remain outstanding it allows the council to organise the remedial work and invoice the owners for their share".
Last October Alan Gueldner, from SBC's enforcement team, wrote: "The cost of the work to date is £300,000. In addition the cost of monitoring the scaffolding and traffic management arrangements will be in the region of £3,000 per week.
"As I have previously explained, as an owner of part of the building you are legally liable to meet your share of these costs".
Another message from Mr Gueldner, also dated October 2018, included estimates for restoration and demolition. The money needed to make the entire property wind and water tight was put at £774,000, and to bring it back into use would require a further £268,000.
Meanwhile the expenditure involved in clearing the site and providing shoring to neighbouring buildings is quoted at £589,000.
The FOI request to the council also asked for costs incurred so far since concerns were first expressed about the state of the building.
SBC revealed: "Total to date £379,681.48. Total is made up of the following: Payment to Contractor £198,398.82 Scaffolding Costs £111,795.10 Consultants Costs £67,472.56 Misc Cost £2,015.00.
When the council was asked how much of the expenditure had been recovered from the owners, and how much it anticipated getting back in the future the response was: “When undertaking direct action works the costs associated with these works are not invoiced until the works have been completed. In this case given the complex nature of the project and the desire for the Council to acquire the property it is too early to comment on the recovery of costs.”
In November 2018 one of the owners told SBC: "We need legal assurances that if we give the council our deeds=nil [for nothing], we have absolutely no costs, neither for monies already spent nor in the future.".
Historic Environment Scotland, the national 'guardian' of important buildings, has commented on the application to demolish. HES says: "We consider a convincing, yet regrettable, case for demolishing this listed building has been put forward and we do not object to its loss."
A few individuals have lodged objections, but given the costs involved in any restoration project it would seem the days of Clarke & Bell's once attractive tenement are numbered. The priority will be to have the gap site suitably redeveloped as quickly as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment