Category: DCT-News

Our latest packed edition features our detailed responses to the Eden Project planning application and Dundee City Council’s Sustainable Transport Delivery Plan, along with much else.

Open this page and read all about it by clicking here.

The Civic Trust has lodged a detailed response to Dundee City Council in respect of the planning application for the Eden Project (reference 23/00814/FULM).

Our overall view of the proposals is, understandably, positive and supportive. Most of our concerns rest in the areas of transportation and accessibility of the site. A number of issues will need to be ironed out to prevent avoidable difficulties.

You can read our submission here. Our thoughts on the planning application (in principle) for a pedestrian and active travel bridge spanning East Dock Street and the railway can be seen here.

We note an application to redevelop the site of the former drill hall on the north-west corner of Douglas Street and Brown Street.

The existing two-storey building was, according to the inscription on its south gable, built in 1909 for the City of Dundee Territorial Force. It survived as a Territorial Army Centre up to the 1960s, before becoming business premises and latterly a nightclub. While unlisted, the building falls within the Blackness Conservation Area and special consent for its demolition is required.

The proposed replacement is a seven-storey building housing 63 affordable flats and ground floor workshops. The design appears to be unremarkable, apart from a plan to save and incorporate five small architectural features from the original building in the south and east elevations.

Planning references are 23/00852/FULM for the new development; and 23/00853/CON for demolition in a Conservation Area.

Comments can be submitted to Dundee City Council until 26 January.

December 2023 sees two planning applications lodged with Dundee City Council in respect of the proposed Eden Project.

23/00814/FULM is the full application addressing the main Eden development on the gas works site between East Dock Street and Broughty Ferry Road.

23/00813/PPPL seeks planning permission in principle for a landscaped bridge to facilitate pedestrian and active travel access between the Eden Project site and East Camperdown Street. This bridge would cross East Dock Street and the railway.

The deadline for comments is 5 January 2024. The Civic Trust’s planning group is getting to work scrutinising the large number of associated documents, which you may view by clicking on the links above.

To mark our fiftieth anniversary, Dundee Civic Trust’s popular annual journal ‘City Scene’ has been renamed ‘Civic Dundee’. This 2023 issue contains a rundown of our Awards past and present, as well as a host of other fascinating material about the city.

Members can look forward to their free copies soon. Get a taste of the diverse contents here.

The forthcoming relocation of British Telecom’s Dundee operations to new premises at West Marketgait will mean complete abandonment of the ‘new’ Telephone House, lying between Ward Road and West Bell Street. A planning application for conversion of this building to student accommodation has, however, been submitted (23/00684/FULL).

The office block was erected in the mid-1970s for what was then still known as Post Office Telephones. Built as an extension to the earlier Telephone House at the junction of Ward Road and Courthouse Square, it was one of the city’s biggest office developments. It was designed by the architectural practice of Ian Burke Associates. Visually it is very much of its time, although not necessarily unappealing. The site is a historic one, formerly occupied by the central fire station and (much earlier) the Dundee and Newtyle railway station.

The new proposal is to completely refurbish this outworn building inside and out to make it fit for modern student accommodation, providing over 400 bedspaces and support facilities. This is one of several applications for purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) in the city; and whilst a few projects are underway, significant demand for more quality accommodation remains.

While awaiting further details, the Trust is minded to be supportive of this project in principle.

Further celebrations of the Civic Trust’s 50th anniversary took place at a Civic Reception at the City Chambers on 12 October, at which awards were made under three categories:

• Dundee Civic Trust Awards for 2023 – for projects completed since our previous awards in 2019, exhibiting a high quality of design and exhibiting excellent use of materials, energy conservation and sustainability;
• Dundee Civic Trust/Dundee Historic Environment Trust Awards for 2023 – for projects deemed worthy of restoring and preserving the city’s built heritage and historic buildings;
• Dundee Civic Trust 50th Anniversary Awards – for outstanding projects not previously considered for a Dundee Civic Trust Award and parties who have made a consistent contribution to Dundee’s built environment.

Full details will appear soon on the Awards page.

On Thursday 4 May 2023, the members of Dundee Civic Trust marked our 50th anniversary with a celebratory dinner at the Woodlands Hotel in Broughty Ferry. Our much-loved senior member and former Chairman, Jack Searle, provided the address.

Londoner Jack, thanks to his marriage to local girl Joyce, has been an honorary Dundonian for sixty years. His speech provided as good a summary as any of the work of Dundee Civic Trust.

There is a strong possibility that Dundee Civic Trust might not exist at all today but for Jack’s energy in helping to revitalise it some 25 years ago. One thing is certain: without him it would be much the poorer.

Read Jack’s address here.

Open this page and click here to read our summer 2023 issue of Newsflash.