Heritage body in bid to save gas holder

A leading campaign group has written to every councillor on the capital's planning committee urging them to grant the B-listed former gas holder in Granton a reprieve.

Developers want to knock down the structure, which was given protected status 12 years ago, despite failing to bring forward plans for its replacement.

But experts claim the gas holder, which dates from 1898, should be retained as the last remaining sign of Granton's once-booming gas industry.

The Scotsman revealed on Saturday how council officials were recommending demolition of the huge structure, despite protests from Historic Scotland, which insists it should be retained as "a landmark in Edinburgh's industrial heritage".

Now, the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland has pointed out that similar structures around the world have been turned into concert venues, exhibition centres and visitor attractions.

The group has warned that the council, which will rule on the demolition bid tomorrow, has already set a dangerous precedent in granting approval for the demolition of 11 listed buildings across the city in the past four years, including historic sites on Princes Street, St Andrew Square and in the Old Town.

Developer National Grid, which has spent more than ten years creating the ForthQuarter scheme on 110-acres of the old gasworks site, at one time the biggest in Scotland, hopes to generate interest in the site becoming home to an iconic hotel or cultural building.

But Euan Leitch, a campaigner with the AHSS, said: "The gas holder is the final remaining industrial component on what was a large site and we are convinced that not only is it important to the Scotland and Edinburgh's history, but that it is capable of interesting and exciting use.

"Gasometers in Vienna have become flats and a concert venue, in Athens they house a radio station and in Oberhausen, in Germany, a concert and exhibition space has proved a hugely successful visitor attraction."

National Grid claims the gas holder is blighting its development site in Granton and demolition would make the area more attractive to other developers.

The company has told the city council at least 5.2 million to repair and restore the listed structure, one of three gas holders to be built at the site.

Marion Williams, director of the Cockburn Association, the capital's main campaign group, said: "It wouldn't be very clever for the council to totally disregard Historic Scotland's verdict just 12 years after the gas holder's been listed."

A National Grid spokeswoman said: "We have provided comprehensive information and supporting documents to allow the planning committee to make an informed decision."

The ForthQuarter development has already seen the creation of hundreds of new homes, a new campus for Telford College and an HQ for Scottish Gas.