Listed building will be demolished to clear way for £140m PETERHEAD COMPLEX
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BEHIND BARS: Peterhead Prison, which will be replaced by a new facility
A key part of proposals for a £140million “super-jail” in the north-east has been given the go-ahead.
Two planning applications for HMP Grampian, which would replace Peterhead Prison and Craiginches at Aberdeen, were lodged with Aberdeenshire Council last year.
The first, seeking permission to demolish buildings and build a replacement complex, was approved during a full meeting of Aberdeenshire councillors last month.
Now the second application, for listed building consent to tear down an old chimney and workshop, has won support.
The decision was made by local authority officials using delegated powers.
It marks another major milestone in the prison plan, which was first un-veiled in August 2007, by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) envisages a 500- capacity jail for men, women and young offenders from throughout the country.
Plans to clear the old chimney and workshop raised eyebrows when they were announced, particularly from Historic Scotland, which claimed the SPS had failed to provide “ro- bust justification” for demolition.
The Scottish Government agency had raised concerns that the proposal to demolish the C-listed structures at the South Road site was premature.
Leigh Johnston, of Historic Scotland, argued that the buildings – a former Admiralty yard smith and fitting shop – contributed to Peterhead’s “strong maritime history”.
The plan also came under scrutiny from archaeologists who claimed the remains of a railway yard would also be lost during the demolition.
Council environment officer Moira Greig wrote to planners requesting that a photographic survey of the buildings was taken before any work goes ahead.
The old Peterhead Prison line was an isolated route that only connected the quarry at Stirling Hill, near Boddam, to the site of the south breakwater pier at Burnhaven, Peterhead.
The Victorian jails at Peterhead and Aberdeen are no longer fit for purpose, it has been claimed.
Conditions at Peterhead Prison have been branded among the worst of any jail in Scotland.
In the latest report on the prison, published in November, Scotland’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, Brigadier Hugh Monro, said that convicted paedophiles and rapists continued to be released without being properly rehabilitated.
It is hoped HMP Grampian will be completed by 2014.