For almost 4 years, a fierce debate raged over the way forward for the Wyndford property in Glasgow, dividing residents and sparking wider nationwide controversy. Was the demolition of its high-rises an environmental travesty or step one towards much-needed regeneration?
The dispute started in November 2021, days after the town hosted the UN local weather convention Cop26, at which politicians and companies promised to curb wasteful constructing destruction. But residents of Wyndford quickly discovered leaflets on their doorsteps heralding a “vibrant new daybreak” – one which concerned the demolition of all 4 high-rise blocks on the property. The choice set off years of protests, authorized challenges and neighborhood divisions.
The struggle got here to a head on Sunday, when three of the 4 Sixties tower blocks had been lastly diminished to rubble in a managed demolition.
Wyndford property was constructed between 1961 and 1969 on the positioning of a former navy barracks. Commissioned by the Harold Macmillan authorities, it was meant as an exemplar of high-quality public housing, a rebuttal to Glasgow’s legacy of low cost and poorly deliberate social lodging.
However 60 years later, a part of that imaginative and prescient had light. Its one-bedroom high-rise flats had turn out to be synonymous with short-term tenancies, and labelled a hotspot of neglect and social deprivation. Wheatley Group, Scotland’s largest landlord, argued that the blocks had been now not match for goal and ought to be changed with fashionable household houses.
A decided coalition of residents, activists, and conservationists, led by the Wyndford Residents Union (WRU), fiercely opposed the demolitions. On the coronary heart of their marketing campaign was a perception that the destruction of social housing throughout a housing disaster was not solely irresponsible however pointless.
Regardless of the protests, occupations, and authorized challenges, Wheatley Group remained steadfast. Aisling Mylrea, the director of Wheatley Houses Glasgow, emphasised that authorized challenges had been shut down each time and that each one the permissions had been in place for the demolition to go forward. She mentioned: “Over 85% of the tenants of the scheme assist the demolition and the £100m funding that can observe for the realm.”
Henry McLaren, a Wyndford resident and member of the Future Focus Group arrange by Wheatley, mentioned: “ This shall be all good for the neighborhood. The phrases ‘focus’ and ‘future’ are vital – everybody wants to remain targeted on the top aim.”
From the outset, Wheatley Group insisted that retrofitting the high-rise flats and making them into bigger houses was not possible and frequently pointed to the declining reputation of high-rise social housing. Nonetheless, many campaigners disputed the declare that retrofitting was unviable.
A coalition of architects, conservationists and engineers performed research suggesting the buildings may have been modernised and repurposed. Malcolm Fraser, a number one architect and campaigner, additionally known as into query the 85% determine cited for assist of the demolition, arguing that no different to demolition was ever critically introduced. “That quantity displays solely the few hundred tenants who responded, and so they had been by no means given the choice of retrofitting,” he mentioned.
Because the demolition date approached, tensions mounted. For a lot of residents, the stark actuality of the managed explosions of their neighbourhood took centre stage. Fears of additional protests and block occupations prompted demolition contractors to station 24-hour safety on the entrance to every tower. Folks residing close to the demolition web site expressed issues for his or her houses, and had been angered after being provided a £100 Tesco voucher as compensation for vacating their properties for as much as 10 hours on the day of the blast.
Wheatley Group assured the residents that each one security measures had been met, stating: “Safedem are world-leading demolition contractors. They’ve carried out comparable demolitions worldwide, making certain all asbestos and dangerous supplies had been eliminated upfront.”
Wheatley Group says it desires to interchange the 600 one-bedroom and bedsit flats with 400 new household houses, citing an pressing want for bigger, fashionable housing in Glasgow. But campaigners stay unconvinced that it will actually profit the neighborhood, given the general discount in social housing items. Because the mud settled on demolition day, Nick Durie, an Alba politician and WRU member, made it clear that the battle was removed from over. “This isn’t the top – it’s just the start. Our struggle will proceed lengthy after the demolition. We are going to protest and problem each stage of the brand new growth till they decide to changing all 600 social houses they’ve torn down,” he mentioned.
Past the lack of houses, the demolition has drawn criticism from local weather activists and designers alarmed by the environmental toll. With an estimated 47,000 tonnes of embodied carbon launched within the demolition course of, some argue that the destruction contradicts the local weather commitments made at Cop26.
Fraser summed up the frustration: “I do know that each constructing we put up in the present day will final about 40 years. These flats, if correctly retrofitted, may have lasted for hundreds of years. We have to cease this cycle of waste and destruction.”
A UK-wide coverage that exempts new buildings and demolitions from VAT has solely strengthened the choice for demolition over retrofitting. Critics warn that with out coverage adjustments, the cycle will proceed: “Large enterprise thrives on flattening previous buildings, landfilling them and beginning once more. And so it goes on and on.”
Three of Wyndford’s towers have now been diminished to rubble, becoming a member of the numerous high-rise schemes which have vanished from Glasgow’s skyline. But the battle over their legacy – debates on the environmental value of demolition and the way forward for social housing – stays removed from settled.
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