Councillors order action after historic plaster ceilings destroyed

11/02/10

Fine plasterwork ceilings dating from the late 18th or early 19th century have been destroyed during the renovation of a listed Aberdeen building.

Members of the city council's Development Management Sub-committee unanimously agreed that enforcement action should be taken against developer Stewart Property Services Ltd when they considered the firms application for retrospective planning permission.

Permission had initially been sought to create 15 bedrooms, but the plans were amended to retain the principal rooms on the first and second floor as a seating area/coffee room/games area and residents' meeting room. The approved plans showed the rooms retained in their entirety.

The amendments were made following Historic Scotland's advice that the rooms and the original entrance door were the principal features of the listed building.

Planning officers became aware that unauthorised internal work had been carried out on the property. The two principal rooms had been split into bedrooms and lowered ceilings were installed with sprinkler systems in between.

The plaster ceiling on the first floor survives in part behind the false ceiling, but the second historic ceiling has been completely removed.

The developer told planners that when renovations got underway, the building's interior was found to be badly affected by dry and wet rot, requiring costly and extensive repair work.

He also stated that it was "financially imperative" for his business to have consent granted for 15 bedrooms instead of the nine which were previously approved.

Councillors agreed yesterday that the following enforcement action should be taken against the developer:

• the internal partitions on the first and second floors are to be removed;
• the rooms are to be re-instated to their original proportions;
• the original features are to be restored and, where those features are missing they are to be reinstated or replaced them with features which match the surviving features, in a scheme which must be approved by the planning authority;
• the first floor ceiling should be revealed and restored and the plasterwork should be reinstated to match the original pattern, in a scheme which must be approved by the planning authority;
• the second floor ceiling should be reinstated to match the original pattern, in a scheme which must be approved by the planning authority.
  
  

Convener Kate Dean said: "Riding roughshod over planning permission and destroying historically important parts of listed buildings is completely unacceptable.

"This is a particularly sad case, which has seen the city lose quite probably the best example of decorative plasterwork for that era.

"I look forward to seeing the developer's proposals to reinstate these features to their former glory."

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