Court bills council £175,000 over damage to restaurant 15 years ago

Glasgow City Council has been ordered to pay £175,000 damages over a decision taken 15 years ago which shaved £12,000 from a demolition contract.

The council opted against stabalising works for a wall, which would be left exposed after the upper three storeys of a tenement had been knocked down.

Part of the wall collapsed in a gale, crashing through the roof of a restaurant, and a judge has ruled that the council should meet the cost of the damage.

Morag Wise, QC, said at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the director of building control in 1996, Ian Taylor, had decided to drop “tying-in” works from the contract, in the full knowledge that it would leave a structurally unstable wall.

“He failed to have regard to the risk to the safety of persons and property in the vicinity of the newly-exposed wall,” Ms Wise added.

K2 Restaurants, which has an Indian restaurant, the Koh I Noor, at 235 North Street, sued the council over the damage to its building in November 1996.

The restaurant had been on the ground floor of a tenement which had become derelict. Owners of the flats had failed to carry out repairs, and the council served a demolition notice and organised the work.

The first, second and third floors were demolished, and a new roof was built on the restaurant. A few weeks later, however, brickwork was blown from a newly-exposed wall and it caused extensive damage to the restaurant.

Judge Wise said: “If it is known that the very work intended to remove a danger will cause a new unstable situation, there is a clear responsibility to take steps to resolve the new problem created.”