National Grid in bid to force sale of listed gas tank to city council

The iconic Granton gas holder on the banks of the Firth of Forth was unusually granted listed building status by Historic Scotland in 1998 and has survived a series of planning battles over its future which culminated in a public inquiry last month.

But although the inquiry ruled that the historic Victorian landmark should stay in place, owner National Grid says it is now consulting lawyers over whether it can force Edinburgh Council into purchasing the 120-year-old structure with taxpayers’ funds.

The utility firm is examining whether it can use Land Compensation legislation to argue that as the state wants to save the gas holder, it should be liable to pay the £5m bill for stabilisation and maintenance.

It wants the steel lattice-work structure demolished so it can clean up the 110-acre site on which it stands and develop it as part of a wider plan to build thousands of homes along the Forth waterfront.

Other options include selling the site entirely, although property experts say that would be unlikely with the gas holder still on the land, or an expensive redrawing of the entire master plan for the area.

The company says it has exhausted plans for re-use of the gas holder and failure to demolish and clean up the land would have a “significant” impact on its budgets and plans for the new Forthquarter.

A spokeswoman for National Grid Property, which manages the site, confirmed that legal action to transfer ownership of the 150ft-high B-listed gas holder to the council was one of the options it was currently considering.

“The project team is reviewing all of the options open to them. They have to look at all the repercussions of those, such as cost implications and what impact it has on the development.

“But the £5m cost of stabilising the gas holder is not feasible for National Grid. People have to think about what the financial implications of doing something like that are.

“National Grid has to look at the fact that it is a protected structure. It is about evaluating how we work within that or change that decision and is it worth changing that decision.”

The gas holder was once part of the biggest gasworks in Scotland and two similar, although later, structures have already been demolished. Historic Scotland listed it as a prime example of Victorian industrial architecture.

Full plans have never been produced for what might replace the demolished gasholder, because surveyors cannot assess ground conditions before “decontamination” of the site takes place. Demolition and decontaminating the land has been calculated as costing £2.5m.

“We would need to clean it up and there is contamination underneath the gas holder,” the spokeswoman said. “It can’t be remediated with the structure still in place.”

But National Grid has also found it would cost £5.2m to refurbish the structure as well as £200,000 a year to paint and maintain.

A sale of the land would end what has been a 12-year partnership between National Grid, the council and Forth Ports to create what was supposed to be “one of Europe’s most ambitious waterfront development projects”.

Work has all but ground to a halt, mainly due to the recession, in the three key areas of Leith, Newhaven and Granton, with only around a fifth of the regeneration complete. Sources said the outright sale of the land at Granton would prove “impossible”, mainly due to the extensive contamination.

John Brown, director of property agency DTZ, said: “In my 12 years representing National Grid at Granton, in both good and bad markets, there has been no interest from the market other than wild suggestions as to theoretical uses uninhibited by economic reality.

“Anyone can dream up a thought such as a running track or arena, but none have achieved a practical solution which addresses the decontamination/structural management and maintenance costs through a robust economic solution.

“If there has been a practical proposal it has not been made to me, though it must be said we are not marketing the site as this is currently impossible given the contamination and risks.”

National Grid’s bid to demolish the gasholder – one of the last remnants of the old gasworks site – was rejected by the Scottish Government after a public inquiry last month.

The company had appealed a decision by the city council, which wants to save the B-listed structure, but the inquiry also said it should be retained.

Dannie Onn, a reporter appointed by Scottish ministers to rule on the case, said: “With wit and imagination a restored structure might frame or support a variety of leisure or commercial applications.”

A council spokesperson said: “The government reporter has upheld the council’s decision to refuse the application and we have had no approach yet from National Grid following that. If there is to be an approach then we will need to consider it in detail once it is received and decide on the most appropriate response then.”