Court bills council £175,000 over damage to restaurant 15 years ago
The council opted against stabalising works for a wall, which would be left exposed after the upper three storeys of a tenement had been knocked down.
Part of the wall collapsed in a gale, crashing through the roof of a restaurant, and a judge has ruled that the council should meet the cost of the damage.
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Hide AdMorag Wise, QC, said at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the director of building control in 1996, Ian Taylor, had decided to drop “tying-in” works from the contract, in the full knowledge that it would leave a structurally unstable wall.
“He failed to have regard to the risk to the safety of persons and property in the vicinity of the newly-exposed wall,” Ms Wise added.
K2 Restaurants, which has an Indian restaurant, the Koh I Noor, at 235 North Street, sued the council over the damage to its building in November 1996.
The restaurant had been on the ground floor of a tenement which had become derelict. Owners of the flats had failed to carry out repairs, and the council served a demolition notice and organised the work.
The first, second and third floors were demolished, and a new roof was built on the restaurant. A few weeks later, however, brickwork was blown from a newly-exposed wall and it caused extensive damage to the restaurant.
Judge Wise said: “If it is known that the very work intended to remove a danger will cause a new unstable situation, there is a clear responsibility to take steps to resolve the new problem created.”