Car dealers Arnold Clark are seeking new consents in their ongoing bid to make a landlocked B-listed building on their Stirling site structurally safe.
The three-storey derelict former corn mill and grain store off Kerse Road, which dates back to 1904, is surrounded by garages and workshops and has no direct access from a public road.
In 2019 Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd withdrew a bid to demolish the historic structure, which is one of the few remaining industrial buildings in Stirling dating from the early 20th century.
It was said to have become increasingly rundown and unsafe over the previous three decades to the point it was placed on the Buildings At Risk Register.
Arnold Clark owns the adjacent land and the building itself, which has been mostly unused since it was bought by the company in 1991. Efforts to sell it were unsuccessful. The building is believed to have already been surrounded by development when the company bought the site.
Now the firm has applied for its latest listed building consent for a list of works including removal of the roof structural timbers, reducing the height of both gable walls and remedial action works.
In documents submitted with the application, agents for Arnold Clark Autombiles said: “A programme of works to remove the existing roof coverings, including the dormer roof coverings, is due to commence as a matter or urgency to make the building safe, as part of a series of works implemented under an existing LBC.
“An external façade retention system was erected in 2021 as part of the works subject to the existing LBC.
“Further inspection of the building including a drone survey has established that the condition of the structural timbers, to the roof and internal floors are in such poor condition and in a decayed state that they will most likely required to be removed as part of the works to remove the roof coverings and to make the building safe.
“The building in its current state is considered to be dangerous to the public.
“A marketing exercise has been carried out recently demonstrates that the there is no clear future viable use for the building. It is the intention of the building owners to follow the works subject to thus LBC for immediate/urgent works with further works necessary to protect and stabilise the structure and building fabric, leaving it vacant and in a mothballed state.”
The building was built in the early 20th Century as a grain store for Robert Walls and Sons at the Valleyfield Mills sidings on the east side of the Caledonian Railway.
The company was a producer of oatmeal for human consumption as well as for its use in the production of animal feeds. Grain processing for the production of cattle and other animal feeds was carried out at the store, as was milling.
It is thought likely that the building fell out of use in the mid-20th Century, with images taken in 1974 showing the building out of use, with windows already bricked up
The building is of significance as a surviving building from the early 20th Century industrial expansion of Stirling and was designated a listed building in 1982 at a Category C level of importance before being upgraded to Category B in 2004.
The agents’ documents added: “It is acknowledged that the removal of the roof structure, degraded floor structures, and the tall hoists and dormer will have a substantially adverse effect on the significance of the building, resulting in the loss of key characteristics of the building.
“In considering the listed building consent, however, the very poor condition of the building and the concerns about the ongoing public safety liability, there are no options available as demonstrated in the long period of time that the building has been unused, and the outcomes of the marketing exercises since 2017, and in 2023/24.”
They continued: “The dormer materials will be retained and stored by Arnold Clark in a suitably protective environment such that they can be reinstated if desirable in the future.”