Shopkeeper is lef t feeling blue in row over purple paint
IN a bid to make her small business more appealing to customers, Martha Gibson painted her shop a lively shade of lilac.
But the makeover did not meet with the approval of killjoy council chiefs, who ordered her to redo the ‘too bright’ and ‘incongruous’ colour scheme.
Now the 53-year-old business owner has hit back, accusing the authority of double standards after it emerged it owns a visitor centre painted a garish blue just a short walk from her shop.
Mrs Gibson says her shop, Treasure Island, is much more in keeping with the Victorian surroundings of the historic village of Inner- leithen, Peebleshire, than the blue of the municipal-owned St Ronan’s Visitor Centre.
She said: ‘I’ve got a shop in a Victorian conservation area painted in an authentic Victorian colour.
‘The Victorians were big on purple, it was one of the most-used colours in the whole Victorian era.
‘But the St Ronan’s Centre is bright, bright blue with a bit of white. It’s almost Day-Glo blue. So it’s total double standards for them to say my wee shop is too bright.’
The centre, built in the 1820s, is a former spa which houses a museum telling the history of Innerleithen, the surrounding area and its links with the novelist Sir Walter Scott.
The mother-of-five and grandmother-of-three incurred the wrath of Scottish Borders Council last month after seeking planning permission for Treasure Island’s new colour scheme, which used to be painted cream.
She needed retrospective council consent for the colour scheme because the shop – which sells toys, gifts and craft items – lies within Innerleithen’s conservation area.
But consent was refused after councillors upheld the decision of a local planning officer who deemed the colour ‘incongruous’, claiming it caused ‘a jarring juxtaposition with the softer, neutral tones of the buildings it relates to’.
Mrs Gibson, who says there are ‘wild inconsistencies’ in shop colours and architectural styles throughout pretty Innerleithen, has been inundated with support from villagers. A petition started by well-wishers has gathered hundreds of signatures.
Mrs Gibson said: ‘The petition has been started by someone who feels that I’m being victimised by an inflexible planning system.
‘I’m overwhelmed with the support I’ve had, both on social media and from people I meet in the street.
‘It now takes me an hour to walk along High Street because so many folk are stopping to chat and saying they feel there is nothing wrong with the colour and that the council should have something better to do. All I have done in a bid to make my shop more attractive is paint a Victorian building in a Victorian colour.’
A council spokesman said: ‘We would firstly seek to resolve any issue through discussions, but if this is unsuccessful, the council does have the option of serving a notice to ensure any unauthorised works are removed.’