Hansard

I thank Chic Brodie for securing the debate and raising issues that relate to Seafield house.

Seafield house was the home of Sir William Arrol who, incidentally, was born in Houston in Renfrewshire. As a nine-year-old, he went to work in a cotton mill, and he worked in mills in Johnstone and—of all places—Paisley.

I want to talk about the historic buildings and Paisley’s legacy from industrial times. Paisley is, obviously, Scotland’s largest town. During the industrial period, the Clark and Coats families were cotton mill barons. They had a competition to see which family could build the most buildings, which was better and which could give more to the town. Many of their buildings are still standing. The Paisley town hall was, in fact, originally the Clark hall. The Clark family set up a competition to design a hall that they could give to the town. Renfrewshire Council—the previous Scottish National Party Administration of which I was a part—recently invested £1.7 million to ensure that that building was upgraded slightly. More work still needs to be done in such buildings.

The Coats were staunch Baptists and they decided that they would build the largest Baptist church in Europe—they were millionaires and at that time everyone went to church. The Coats memorial church is still the largest Baptist church in Europe. However, the problem is that, as the legacy fund goes down and the Coats family are no longer part of Paisley, only six trustees are looking after that historic building. They can no longer afford building insurance and they have recently had some thefts, including the lead off the roof, which is something that happens throughout Scotland these days.

The church has about 30 parishioners, whose average age is between 60 and 65. They are talking about an exit strategy and what they should do with the building. There are many buildings throughout the country that are in that position. They are such an important part of our history and heritage. What will our discussion about that be?

Paisley abbey was built 850 years ago for Cluniac monks—it is the only Cluny abbey that is still in one piece. I had the pleasure of addressing the Cluny federation when it came to Paisley. Its members were speaking French and German; I was speaking Paisley. There may have been a slight translation problem. My good friend and colleague Derek Mackay decided that he would trump me by doing his presentation in French. That is an example of the competitive element that is always between us.

The town of Paisley was built around Paisley abbey—there would be no Paisley if that abbey had not been built there 850 years ago. Even the minister in the Church of Scotland has been asking what we should do and what the building’s future is. It is difficult for them to look at the abbey as a stand-alone place of worship. During my time as a councillor, the council used it for various conferences and other events because it is right next to the town hall.

We must look at old buildings and find new and different ways of using them. We should retain them as part of our heritage, but we should use them for things that they were not originally intended for. The problem is that the many members of the public who walk by such buildings every single day of their life never go in and see what happens in them, but they are the first to complain should anything happen to them.

We must, in a mature manner, have the debate on historic buildings and decide what we will do with our industrial heritage and our past.

17:19