£5M GLASS ACT

Jan 16 2007 Les Stewart

AMENDED £5 million plans to demolish the existing Caithness Glass complex at Inveralmond and replace it with a major retail and industrial development will go before councillors next week.

Proposals for the major tourist attraction, which occupies a prominent gateway site on the northern approaches to Perth, were branded “relatively nondescript” by council planners last time round and the developers were sent back to the drawing board.

Now Ian Sleith, head of development standards, is recommending the go-ahead, despite conceding the building is still not of “especial merit.”

The plan, submitted by A&L King and the Kilmartin Property Group, had been approved at a development control committee meeting last September but planning consent was deferred for satisfactory amended proposals in respect of site layout, building design and landscaping to be submitted.

The proposals will involve bulldozing the present building, now about 30 years old, and replacing it with a new visitor centre/manufacturing/retail complex, with additional retail outlets.

The revised plans indicate there would be a total of seven retail units – the largest of which would, in effect, be a scaled down version of the Caithness Glass operation, with a manufacturing glasshouse, gift shop and restaurant.

The remaining units would comprise retail outlets of varying sizes, geared to the tourist sector.

The 10 metre high stone-clad towers at either end, which formed part of the original scheme, have been retained and an additional feature introduced in the form of a 15-metre high “needle,” close to Inveralmond Roundabout.

In a report to next Wednesday’s development control committee, Mr Sleith states: “The design of the complex, as originally submitted, was considered insufficiently prestigious for a prominent gateway or destination site, particularly if its primary function is to attract tourists.

“While the relatively minor improvements which have been made have not delivered a building of especial merit, they are sufficient to create a meaningful and practical form and to make the development more visually interesting in townscape terms and to provide a focal point.”

l Caithness Glass, which was forced to call in the administrators, was bought over by Devon-based Dartington Crystal last autumn.

les.stewart@s-un.co.uk