Councillors calls for enforcement action to protect heritage buildings

A call has been made for more enforcement action to be taken against private owners to protect heritage buildings after a collapse in Pollokshields.

Fire crews were called to the corner of Kenmure Street and Albert Drive in the early hours of Saturday as a derelict listed tenement came crashing down.

Cllr Stephen Docherty, built heritage spokesman for the city’s Labour group, said there needs to be a “proactive plan” to safeguard buildings.

The tenement was destroyed by fire in April 2020 and has been empty since. Demolition work is now being carried out on site. That fire followed a previous blaze at a nearby tenement.

Cllr Jon Molyneux, Greens, who represents Pollokshields, has said a significant update had been likely in the next few weeks for both sites, with housing and retail units planned.

He added he is hopeful that will still be the case, but the demolition does “potentially affect things as it will have added costs”.

Cllr Docherty said progress has been too slow. “The building doesn’t collapse suddenly,” he added. “ It’s obviously been on the way to collapsing. It hasn’t been structurally sound.”

With the city facing a housing shortage, these properties need to be brought back into use, the Labour councillor said.

“Glasgow’s built heritage is eroding away with no concrete plans in place to protect our built heritage,” Cllr Docherty added. “Another building in Glasgow’s southside collapses, a similar fate to the India Building on Bridge Street.

“The tenement building on the corner of Kenmure Street and Albert Drive has been in a dilapidated and derelict state for five years. How many heritage buildings are on the buildings at risk register and will be left to succumb to a similar fate?

“We have a housing emergency in Glasgow at the moment, there are so many empty buildings that could be refurbished and put back into the housing sector.”

Cllr Docherty also said the council needs to make private owners responsible for buildings, using enforcement action to “create good practice”.

Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, the council’s convener for housing and development, said the two Albert Drive sites have been “problematic” but he is working with officials to “simplify titles and bring forward a regeneration project that would see the sites redeveloped”.

He added: “Under this SNP administration, Glasgow carries out more compulsory purchase orders than all other local authorities combined and has spent approximately £250m in the past decade on heritage assets, proactively addressing the neglect shown by successive Labour administrations.

“The responsibility for the maintenance and safety of buildings rests with owners, and while enforcement notices can be issued as a last resort, we should not expect taxpayers to cover the cost of all the private repairs in the city.”

A council spokesman said demolition work is continuing and it is currently too early to say what the cost will be. He said there had been talks over the possible acquisition of the building by a housing association.

In a blog post, Cllr Molyneux said while he understands anger and frustration over the collapse, it was “not true” that people had been sitting on their hands.

There has been “quite intensive” work over the past year with the council, owners, Southside Housing and other potential developers, he added.

Cllr Molyneux explained the plan for the site would see the owners transfer their interests to the housing association at nil cost for future development as social housing.

Progress has been complicated as while most owners were insured, some were not, he added. All owners need to consent to a transfer of ownership.

“When there are very different levels of engagement between owners — some highly motivated and proactive, others not — then this can become really challenging,” Cllr Molyneux said.

He also said it would not have been “straightforward” for the council to use compulsory purchase powers earlier. Owners can challenge the process and that was a “strong possibility”, he said.

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