Edinburgh council will object to plans to give Westfield Court listed building status
‘Heritage matters, but so do people’ - Christopher Spall, Westfield Court Owners Group
Edinburgh council will object to listed building status for a troubled block of flats and will appeal if the listing goes ahead, the city's planning committee agreed unanimously.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has already said it is likely to list eight-storey Westfield Court in Gorgie, built in the early 1950s and described as "the original banana flats".
The council said in November it wanted to demolish the flats, which have been plagued by persistent problems with the plumbing, heating and cladding, including sewage leaking into people's homes, and replace them with new council houses.
And the authority, which owns 32 of the 94 flats, had begun making offers to the other owners in a bid to buy back the entire block, but that process was halted after an application for listing was made to HES.
A deputation from Westfield Court Owners Group encouraged the committee to object to the listing.
Owner Christopher Spall told the committee on Wednesday:"We recognise there are differing views regarding the future of Westfield Court and we respect those views. However, for many owners this is no longer simply a debate about a building. It is a question of whether owners can realistically move on with their lives.
"Many owners are pensioners or people with ordinary incomes. Our properties cannot be sold in the normal way, they are increasingly difficult to insure, and cannot responsibly be let or rented out.
"One member of our group has repeatedly returned home to find waste water in her kitchen. She describes returning home anxiously, with her heart in her mouth, not knowing what she will find. And even after it's cleaned up the odour remains."
Mr Spall also pointed to Edinburgh's housing emergency and said there was a "moral dimension" to the debate about Westfield Court.
"If preserving a single building results in hardship for many, traps owners in uncertainty and unaffordable liabilities and prevents the delivery of much-needed new homes then there is a moral cost that must be considered.
"Heritage matters but so do people. And so do families and so does the opportunity to provide safe, modern, energy efficient, low-cost homes for future generations."
Green councillor Alex Staniforth said a final decision had not been made on the council pursuing demolition of the flats and stressed that his party's support for opposing the listing "is not necessarily support for demolition".
Planning convener Joan Griffiths said everyone recognised the sensitivity of the situation for residents and owners and the importance of them having their say.