The owners of an office building said to be “a good surviving” example of Victorian architecture have won a legal battle over a decision to give it a listed status.

Weiss Development Company Ltd wanted to demolish the City Sawmills structure at Port Dundas in the city. 

The Court of Session heard how the firm wanted to build 60 new flats at the building’s location.

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Judges Lord Carloway, Lord Pentland and Lady Wise heard how Historic Environment Scotland gave the construct a category C listed status.

The organisation concluded that the building was a good example of Glasgow architectural history.

The court heard how Historic Environment Scotland decided to give the building this status in October 2022.

(Image: Paul Sweeney)

The decision was just five months after Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney made an application for it to be made a listed building.

The court heard this was done with a  “view to having it preserved from demolition.”

The firm’s Jonathan Weiss appealed against the decision. He pointed to a decision made by Historic Environment Scotland in September 2022.

The organisation then decided not to grant the building listed status due to the “advanced stage” of Weiss’s plans.

Mr Weiss appealed against the ruling as he believes there is “no historic, design or age significance” which would justify the building being listed.

But Lorna McCallum, a reporter appointed by Scottish ministers, dismissed the appeal.

This prompted Mr Weiss to go to the Inner House of the Court of Session - Scotland’s highest civil appeal court.

He told the civil appeal judges that the decision made by Ms McCallum did not follow established legal guidelines.

He argued that the reporter did not address his concerns about how Historic Environment Scotland had changed its mind about listed status in such a short period of time.

He said there were no “material change” in the circumstances which would justify Historic Environment Scotland’s reversal.

He argued that his firm had a “legitimate expectation” from the first decision by HES that the building would not be listed due to the advanced stage of the development proposals.

He said it was “accordingly unfair of HES” to change its decision when “nothing relevant had changed.”

In a written judgement published on Friday, the court agreed with Mr Weiss’s submissions and overturned the decision made by Ms McCallum.

Lord Pentland, who gave the judgement, ordered that the matter should be reconsidered by a new reporter.

He wrote: “While a reporter must not, of course, embark on a frolic of her own by seeking out and founding upon information not placed before her.. it ought to have been obvious to the reporter in this case that the appellants entertained profound concerns about the fairness, transparency and legality of the processes that had been followed.

“At the root of the appellants’ concerns was the seemingly remarkable reversal by HES of their original decision not to list the building in circumstances where nothing of any material relevance had altered in the short interval between the two decisions.

“In these unusual circumstances the court considers that the reporter erred in law by failing to engage with a key aspect of the appellants’ concerns about the overall fairness of the procedure followed by HES.

“She ought to have addressed the issue of whether there was any legitimate basis for the decision by HES to change their view on listing so fundamentally and so soon after their first decision without there being any material change in the circumstances of the case.

“Having regard to the material produced to her there was no basis on which the reporter could conclude that such a dramatic reversal of the original decision was justified.”

READ MORE: Owner of former Glasgow Sawmills office building loses appeal

The City Sawmills was founded by James Brownlee in 1848 and became the largest firm of timber merchants in Scotland.

The former office building was designed in 1893 and was later taken over by a jeweller.

Mr Sweeney welcomed the decision of the reporter. He described the City Sawmills as being an “outstanding example of Glasgow’s industrial past”

Mr Weiss described Historic Environment Scotland’s decision to list the building as “shocking”. He argued that there was “no historic, design or age significance to be found”

A document listed at the appeal added: “To allow such a building to hold the title of ‘listed’ would undermine the credibility of HES and jeopardise the importance of truly historic buildings in Scotland.”

Lord Pentland and his colleagues overturned Ms McCallum’s October 2023 decision and said the matter should be reconsidered.

He wrote: “The appeal should be reconsidered by a different reporter in the light of the views expressed by the court in this judgment.”