A final attempt to save a historic Aberdeen building from demolition to make way for the new £333million Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) was dramatically defeated yesterday.
Campaigners have been attempting to secure the future of the renowned Strathcona House in Bucksburn.
And yesterday, councillors heard a renewed, impassioned plea from the community council to save the building.
The SNP then tabled an 11th-hour addendum suggesting a feasibility study into moving the massive house, brick by brick, to another part of the city – at a cost of around £5.5million – should be carried out.
Group leader Graham Dickson said: “We should look at every way to retain the house and I think the public would support that.”
The move prompted a furious row in the chambers, with committee chairman Neil Cooney branding it an “absolute shambles”.
He also said the SNP needed to think about “the city’s future”.
Earlier in the meeting, Bucksburn and Newhills Community Council’s planning officer Charles Shepherd made an impassioned appeal to councillors to incorporate the building into the new AECC.
He pointed to the 591 signatures on an online petition, the stained glass windows and the Nobel Prize winning Sir John Boyd Orr, who was once a resident.
He said: “In England they found the body of Richard III in car park, I don’t want the legacy of this great man to be buried in a car park in Aberdeen.”
But Mr Cooney said while he sympathised with Mr Shepherd, the council had looked at “all options” to save the house from the bulldozers.
He added he was encouraged that materials from the building would be included in new works on the AECC and event halls would be named after some of the great residents – including Lord Strathcona himself.
The SNP’s addendum was defeated by 12 votes to seven, meaning work on the new AECC will continue as planned.
Proposals for the new centre were approved unanimously in May this year.
In July, Historic Scotland revealed it could not stand in the way of plans to demolish the house as there is a planning application already in place.
The new centre is expected to pump around £11million a year into the north-east economy from concerts and events like Offshore Europe.