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Plenary, 11 Nov 2009

11 Nov 2009 · S3 · Plenary

Item of business

Scotland's Historic Environment

Grahame, Christine SNP South of Scotland Watch on SPTV

I will campaign for anything if Karen Gillon can help me to get the money, but at the moment my priority is the Waverley line. Let us get that built first, after nearly 50 years of it not running.

Currently, nearly 10 per cent of employment in the Scottish Borders is tourism related. At the top of the attractions are Melrose abbey, Abbotsford house and Jedburgh abbey—I know that Karen Gillon will not thank me if I do not mention that. In 2008, UK tourists brought £77 million and overseas tourists brought £29 million into the Borders economy. That is not to be sneezed at in an area that was in recession and where mills closed long before Gordon Brown's recession—that is a little party-political point just to see whether members are awake.

Not all our historic environment is suitable to be a tourist attraction and we should not wish it to be. The demise of the weaving and spinning mills and of the paper mills in Penicuik means that vast stone-built mills stand empty, sometimes for far too long. However, I am pleased to say that at the riverside at Selkirk, new enterprises are rising phoenix-like from the metaphoric ashes of Borders industries that are—regrettably—dying.

I would like the minister to examine the use of compulsory purchase orders. Some of the long-deserted derelict buildings that are in commercial property developers' hands are a huge blight on towns. At the entrance to Gala from the A7 from Edinburgh stands a big mill that has been derelict for 10 to 15 years and which only now has a sign that says it is available for development. That is another issue that Karen Gillon raised, but we are not in cahoots. The matter needs to be addressed.

I return to Penicuik and beyond. Newtongrange has a successful mining museum and will be linked with the Waverley line, which will stop there and link into a tourist trail. The line, which is still clear from the A7, is part of our built and historic environment, as is the viaduct at Newtongrange. We must not think that the historic environment is just buildings.

Many historic houses and lands are in not just commercial but private ownership. I am really pleased that Traquair house near Innerleithen is still in the Maxwell Stuart family's hands. It is utterly charming and is very much a family home, as visits show. The property is one of the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland.

I will raise another issue for the minister to consider, just to see whether he is listening. Sometimes, a community becomes aware too late of the value of an historic construction such as a building, a mill or a salt house for which a planning application has been lodged for demolition. I understand that, once a planning application has been lodged, the community and everybody else is barred from seeking to have the building listed, albeit retrospectively, and cannot even halt proceedings. If a building is not listed, people have had it. I have chased that issue before. Will the minister advise me of the current position? Would his office consider examining the situation?

Windows provide a metaphorical example of what we sometimes allow to happen to our built and historic environment. As shorthand, I will talk about sash and casement windows versus C R Smith—I mean no offence to C R Smith, but I know that it does not fit sash and casement windows. We are being sloppy as a society when we allow what appear to be minor alterations to buildings—sometimes just to one building in a row—to spoil an area's built landscape. Some councils are tight about that—the matter tends to be local—but I would like the issue to be addressed nationally.

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Plenary, 11 Nov 2009

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