Thursday June 18th 2026
Westfield Court, Gorgie
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Edinburgh Council will object to the listing of a city tower block, and lodge an appeal if it is listed, after a decision by city councillors at Wednesday’s planning committee meeting.
Officials said in November last year thy wanted to pull down the eight-storey Westfield Court block in Gorgie, though councillors are yet to agree to pursue demolition.
A buyback programme to put the entirety of the block in council ownership was paused after it became clear Historic Environment Scotland (HES) was listing it.
Full ownership would allow the council to go ahead with demolishing the block. Currently, the council owns 32 of the flats in the block, while 62 are in private hands.
The proposal to demolish the block stems from a litany of maintenance issues facing it, including sewage pipes leaking into flats and difficulties with flooding, services ducts and fire safety.
Council officers said in November that the sewage pipes were beyond economical repair.
If the block were listed, demolition of the structure and any alterations would require listed building consent.
For demolition of a listed building to get under way, the party looking to demolish the structure would need to demonstrate there was not any viable alternative option.
One property owner in the block, John Hunter, told councillors at the meeting: “When the council offered to purchase my flat, it was a huge relief.
“For the first time in a long time, it felt like there might be a way forward. When the process was paused, I was devastated.”
Mr Hunter, 77, said the flat block had been part of his family life for 60 years, but that he had recently begun letting out his flat to defray historically frozen communal heating costs.
He added: “At my age, facing an uncertain future is difficult. The thought of being left with repair costs I could never afford is frightening.”
Mr Hunter also implored councillors, regardless of the decision made on objecting to a possible or appealing a successful listing, to not lose sight of property owners and residents.
No council group proposed any changes to the proposal to object against the listing, and appeal any successful listing.
Green councillor Alex Staniforth said his group’s support of the proposal was “not necessarily support of demolition”, and instead support on the action around listing.
He added: “We think it’s reasonable to put this case to HES. But we do think the council should be engaging with all the sides of this.”
Labour councillor and committee convener Joan Griffiths agreed with Cllr Staniforth’s sentiment, saying it was important residents got a say on the listing.
In a report put before the planning committee, officers stated that the building is “not of any particular architectural or historic interest.”
They add that there are active demolition and redevelopment plans for the site, which they say could run afoul of HES’s own policy for listing.
In addition, they contested a number of other suggestions of characteristics offered by HES as to why the building may be eligible for listing.
These included the building’s curved nature, its being made up of tenement-style sections joined inside one structure, the block’s historical importance and the block’s condition.
Officers stated that other flat blocks in the city from a similar era had curved elements, other buildings captured the image of multi-storey social housing in Edinburgh, and that the building was in poor condition.
They also struck back at HES’s interest in the tenement-style nature of the building, saying Westfield Court’s divisions were similar to existing tenements in the city.
On architecture, they stated that the block did not represent ‘overall design innovation’, and that the building is ‘architecturally unremarkable’.
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