Art school bosses defend handling of rebuild

BOSSES at the fire-ravaged Glasgow School of Art say they have ‘no regrets’ over how they handled the aftermath of the first blaze.

The A-listed property, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was severely damaged in June while undergoing a £35million restoration after a previous fire in 2014.

Critics have blamed systemic management failures. Management at the GSA have been accused of not ensuring new safety measures were installed, with claims that systems to limit the growth of fires should have been explored further.

But chairman Muriel Gray said yesterday she had ‘no regrets’ over how she had handled the rebuilding and would not change any decision on how the GSA had run it. She was being questioned by MSPs on Holyrood’s culture committee along with GSA deputy director Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam and senior project manager of the restoration Liz Davidson.

Miss Gray said the GSA board is committed to rebuilding the school, and said it would be a ‘thrill’ to do so from scratch using Mackintosh’s original plans.

Asked if she had ‘any regrets at all’ in the decisions made on restoration works after the initial fire, she said: ‘I don’t have any regrets about the process, I have massive regrets these things have happened but, no, I can’t say in all conscience I would have done anything differently.’

But she said she did regret ‘not having engaged, and more fully, with the local community’ over the rebuild. This follows concerns of home owners and businesses who could not access their property for weeks.