Edinburgh Westfield Court: Could troubled block of flats be listed instead of demolished?
A troubled Edinburgh block of flats should be considered for listed status rather than face demolition, a councillor has suggested.
Westfield Court in Gorgie has been plagued by a series of problems over the years, from flooding to fire safety, and was in line for major refurbishment.
But last month the council, which owns 32 out of the 94 flats and acts as factor for the building, said leaking waste pipes were beyond repair and proposed to knock down the block.
Shocked residents, who claim the council has failed in its duty of maintenance, staged a protest at a meeting of the housing committee and councillors agreed to delay any decision.
Now Leith Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda believes listed status for the block could offer an alternative way forward, opening the door to potential sources of funding for repairs and renovation.
She asked at the committee whether such a step had ever been considered. Officials said they would have to check.
Cllr Faccenda told the Evening News: "I was just curious because listing is quite a broad thing - it's about unique aspects of buildings or buildings that were ahead of their time - and given that that building has got quite an interesting story, it seemed relevant."
Westfield Court was approved in the 1940s and completed in 1952 in response to the housing needs after the Second World War. It was a crescent-shaped building with balconies, one of Edinburgh's earliest multi-storey blocks, and had a communal heating system and a nursery and playground on the top floor.
Cllr Faccenda noted that Cables Wynd House, better known as the banana flats, was made a Category A listed building in 2017 and, along with nearby Linksview House, is now about to undergo a £69m revamp.
She said Westfield Court was "the original banana flats" and might qualify for listed status too. "I think it should be explored," she said.
"It would lock the council into different obligations, like those we have for Cables Wynd House because it's a listed building, and secondly it could mean there was access to different types of funding because we did have to keep the building.
"It's something that the residents have raised quite few times as well, because they know there are other multi-storey blocks - not just in Edinburgh - that have been given listed status."
She said demolition never seemed a good solution. "I think demolishing places is a really bad idea unless you absolutely have to, even if it involves investing quite a lot in them to make them functional and keep them up.
"I think we should always try our hardest, within the money we've got, to not go to demolishing any big buildings."
And she continued: "From what I understand, there are sections of it that have worse problems than others because it is really like a lot of blocks glued together as opposed to ones like Cables Wynd which are deck access so have floors that go around it. I don't think the whole building is in equally bad condition."