A glimmer of hope in long-running hostel saga
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MORE than four years since it was devastated by an early morning blaze, restoration plans for the city centre’s Eastgate Hostel are finally limping towards a conclusion.
Last month a planning application to restore the building was approved by council planners.
And now they have also given formal consent for the work to take place in what is a designated conservation area.
The building caught fire in April 2013 and around 50 tourists had to be evacuated in the middle of the night, although fortunately no-one was hurt.
For most of the time since then, the building has been swathed in scaffolding and is an ugly blot on the landscape.
Speaking for the building’s main owner, Imtiaz Ali, Iain Sibbald of Graham and Sibbald chartered surveyors said the main piece of work now still to be approved was the building warrant which gives a detailed breakdown of what work is to be done and how it will be executed.
“Because the building is in a conservation area, this extra permission for demolition is really a formality,” he said. “After planning permission was granted last month, the next major thing is to get the building warrant agreed which does involve a bit of discussion and negotiation back and forth between us and the council planners, and it’s really in their hands when that will be finalised.
“That said, they have been very helpful so far and, from our point of view, I would point out that we submitted the warrant even before the planning permission was granted because we are keen to get on with work just as soon as possible.
“I am hopeful the warrant will be granted within the next six weeks or so.”
As well as having to deal with multiple owners responsible for different parts of the building, the original reconstruction plans for the building had to be significantly altered after engineers found the building was in a worse state than had been previously thought.
The plan now is to take the existing facade down and erect a steel frame to support the roof and five floors of the building, with stonework removed during the “demolition” being safely stored before being used in the reconstruction so that the “new” building exactly resembles what was there before. Mr Sibbald said contracts were also being worked on at the moment so these can be finalised with construction firms as soon as possible after the building warrant is approved.
“There will be some adjustment necessary depending on what the final terms of the warrant are, but again I would hope that is something that can be sorted quickly, and I hope work will start before the end of the year.
“There are a lot of things not in our control but we are now very much at the stage of pushing ahead as fast as possible because, like everyone else, we want to see this building back in good shape.”
The long drawn out process of bringing the Eastgate Hostel building back into use contrasts sharply with the 18-month turnaround on the M&Co building on nearby Academy Street, which was similarly gutted by fire in April 2015.
