Scottish Government intervene in Glasgow O2 ABC site plans
A motion lodged at the Scottish Parliament by Labour MSP Paul Sweeney earlier this month claimed that the development would also encroach on 'key vistas' from the A-listed Centre for Contemporary Arts, designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson.
The plans were approved by the council last month (Image: Vita Group)
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Mr Sweeney told the Glasgow Times: 'It's quite clear that the scale of the proposed development that was conditionally approved is completely inappropriate in the context of the Glasgow School of Art.
'If that's the only viable form of development on that site, then clearly the whole master plan for redeveloping the Glasgow School of Art needs to be rethought."
The Labour MSP said this could involve a trust or the Glasgow School of Art taking ownership of the site, a venue, a museum, or exhibition space, affordable housing alongside student housing, or a combination of everything. 'That's the scale of thinking we need,' he added.
'It's quite clear that the Scottish Government has taken a view that this does in fact merit their direct scrutiny.'It's quite unusual for them to call in an application of this nature. I would hope that they would be minded to reject the application altogether – or at the very least impose conditions that significantly reduce its height.'
Glasgow's heritage groups have welcomed the news after previously slamming the council's decision to approve the plans.
Stuart Robertson, director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, welcomed the news, he said: "I'm really pleased to see these not well thought through plans opened up for the kind of discussion they should have had in the first place.
"The planning meeting seemed to include people who were really ill-informed about the whole thing. The hearing not being voted for was a mistake.
"They were discussing the A-listed Mack like it didn't exist.
"If these plans had been able to pass straight through, it would've opened up a can of worms for our city's heritage."
The site was ravaged by fire in 2014 and 2018 (Image: Newsquest)
Niall Murphy, director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust, says it was 'inevitable' that the plans were called in.
He said: "There was an inevitability about this, given the national issues involved and also that there were issues in terms of relations to Glasgow's own planning policies with regards to the historic built environment.
"Obviously, if something is affecting the A-listed Mackintosh, even if the Glasgow School of Art is not in a happy state at the moment, it will inevitably be restored at some point.
"It is arguably the most important building in the city, and we need to acknowledge that somehow, and so it would be nice to see a little bit more sensitivity to the context.
"I'm sure there's a win-win solution here where the developers could adjust their proposal accordingly and everybody walks away happy.
"So we'll see."
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