Labour support for gallery plan

SIR, – Over the past months, you have printed numerous letters about the proposed redevelopment of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

All of them have been hostile to the plans which will disfigure the main entrance, destroy the fine marble staircase and impose a large metal shack on top of the existing elegant, classical facade. Unsurprisingly, I have not been able to find any letters in support of the proposals.

All the more curious then, that, when the council met to debate the plans last month, all Labour councillors (excepting the non-voting Lord Provost) supported them and voted to pass them to an apparently sympathetic Historic Scotland for its approval.

Whatever the explanation for this party unanimity, on what is supposed to be a nonparty issue, the fact remains that the ball is now in Historic Scotland's court.

Its website states that it is “an executive agency of the Scottish Government and (is) charged with safeguarding the nation's historic environment”. There is no way this duty to the Scottish Government can be reconciled with support for the large-scale vandalism planned.

If Historic Scotland approves these proposals then, not only have the barbarians breached the gates but they are in our midst with their hands on the levers of power.