Listed building consent sought for station roof repairs

Listed building consent is being sought to carry out roofing repairs on Stirling’s historic railway station.

The station in Goosecroft Road is A-listed. Designed by James Miller in 1912-15 with W A Paterson (engineer-in-chief of the Caledonian Railway), it is considered by architects and historians to be an outstanding example of early 20th century Scottish railway stations.

The station gives direct links to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness and

Aberdeen (via Perth). Operated by Scotrail, it also serves the LNER and Caledonian Sleeper rail franchises.

The station has undergone numerous changes in recent years including alterations to footbridges and platform canopies under the Stirling-Dunblane-Alloa Electrification Project and the reglazing of the platform canopies with a polycarbonate patent glazing system plus re-provision of above ground rainwater pipework.

The central chimney to the main station building has also been rebuilt with reinforcements following a collapse. There have also been a number of internal refurbishment projects delivered by Scotrail.

The latest application seeks permission for renewals and repairs including re-slating the main building with salvaged slate - or new slate if not enough is available. There would also be re-slating of others buildings with new Welsh slate, two single stack chimneys would be taken down, masonry chimneys rebuilt and removal and infill of redundant rooflights.

IDP Architects have been appointed by Network Rail as their agent for the submission of statutory approvals for the repairs, which are based on survey work carried out from 2018-2019.

They said:“The purpose of these repairs is to re-roof the building to make it wind and watertight, ensure drainage continues to function effectively, the removal of rot and damaged finishes and to carefully manage the future maintenance of the structure with the need for ad-hoc repairs removed.

“Although much of the work proposed is considered to be repair work the extent of the works and reslating of the roof in particular, assumes the requirement for listed building consent for the proposals.”

Stirling Council planners are expected to make a recommendation on the appilcation in due course.