Church is beyond help, says YMCA in centre bid
Charity revises proposal
Perth and District YMCA has sent a second application to Perth and Kinross Council proposing to demolish a decaying church so it can build a new youth centre along with 21 flats.
It says the 130-yearold St Andrew’s and St Steven’s Parish Church in Atholl Street, Perth has to come down as no other organisation is willing to help it pay to preserve the former place of worship. A three-storey tenement block in nearby North William Street would also be levelled under the same proposal.
The charity wants to create new ground floor offices, meeting rooms and retail space in their place as well as a mix of one and two-bedroom flats on the next floor which would be let to young people by a housing association.
A supporting statement accompanying the application says: “Sadly, the previous 13 years of limited repairs and constant striving to provide possible options for the re-use of the existing buildings ... have served to illustrate the point that an economically viable solution for the repair and restoration of the existing buildings is not forthcoming.
“The buildings continue to deteriorate meanwhile to the point that it is considered highly unlikely that a restoring purchaser will ever be found within the current depressed construction market.
“It is our intention to demolish the listed buildings, in order that a new purposebuilt building can be St Andrew’s and St Steven’s Parish Church in Atholl Street
constructed that can support the essential charitable services that the YMCA provides, provide a suitably equipped administrative base for their national activities and, furthermore, provide essential and much sought after single bed affordable housing units.”
Perth and District YMCA withdrew a similar demolition bid last year after Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said the former church’s destruction would be a “significant loss to Perth’s historic centre”.
The charity’s chief executive Jill McGrath said of the latest application: “The proposals have been updated to address
minor concerns [PKC’s] planning department had with the articulation of the proposed flats and Y Centre.
“Key architectural features contained within the existing corner Georgian tenement have been incorporated into the new proposals along with a partial facade retention of the dominant church entrance stonework and the door onto Atholl Street now forms the new entrance into the YMCA’s Youth Centre.
“The centre will be of great benefit to young people, organisations and the local communities of Perth and Kinross, leaving a lasting legacy for generations to come.”
Lasting legacy for generations to come