Plans to demolish fire-ravaged ABC given go-ahead

Glasgow City Council recently issued a dangerous buildings notice to the owners, which requires them to demolish the venue by December 9.

At a meeting on Tuesday, councillors on the city’s planning committee approved an application for consent to completely demolish the C-listed building.  A planning application for student flats and a food hall on the site has been submitted by developers Vita Group and will be considered separately.

There have been calls for the building’s façade to be retained, but a council planner said “full or partial retention of this building is not viable”.

READ MORE: Historic ABC venue served with 'demolition' notice by council

A building standards official told the committee that the owners are “legally obliged” to comply with the dangerous building notice.

Councillors also heard from the planning official who said there were two “separate, parallel pieces of legislation progressing”.

“If the building is dangerous then it does have to go down and therefore what the listed building application is really doing is verifying that,” she added.

She said the committee could decide on conditions attached to the consent. One condition requires the owners to take “all reasonable steps to salvage materials from the demolished building for reuse, repurposing and recycling”. They must submit a written list of items prior to demolition.

Originally submitted in 2019, the application to knock down the building from owners Obarcs No1 LLP received more than 50 objections.

The ABC was previously one of the city's busiest and most renowned live-music venues (Image: NQ)

A council report stated officials had agreed with the applicant that the “application to demolish the building should be placed on hold until a time when it was supported by a proposal for a replacement building”.

However, visits to the site in March and June this year have shown “further deterioration” and led to the serving of a dangerous buildings notice. Work on the demolition must start by September 30.

The report added upper sections of the façade are “unrestrained and in danger of collapse” and building standards staff are concerned over “how long the deteriorating façade structure can survive without collapse”.

Vita Group has also requested conservation area consent to demolish the unlisted former Jumpin Jaks nightclub building as part of its redevelopment plans Planning officials were “satisfied” that the “catastrophic fire to the Mackintosh has severely damaged the structural integrity of this listed building as well and that the full or partial retention of this building is not viable.”

Historic Environment Scotland initially objected but later accepted there are “limited options for the meaningful repair of the majority of the building, including the arcaded parts of the front elevation”.

HES has encouraged the “retention of the entrance portico”.

Bailie Elaine Gallagher, Greens, who chaired the committee, asked: “What level of threat does the condition of the facade actually pose to the public?”

A building standards officer said it “does pose an immediate threat”. He added that temporary measures taken in 2019 to “restrain elements of the facade” are “well beyond any design life that was intended at the time”.

“We are concerned that there is a public safety risk and that’s why we erected the exclusion zone,” he said.