Concerns that progress on work to rebuild the ABC venue on Sauchiehall Street is being held up by the Art School have been raised.

The music venue, in the old cinema complex was destroyed in the second fire at the Art School’s Mackintosh Building in 2018.

It has been empty ever since and it’s absence is having a detrimental effect of other businesses in the area, according to a Glasgow MSP.

There is an application for demolition with the council, that is yet to be determined, and Glasgow School of Art objected to it.

READ MORE: Cause of Glasgow School of Art blaze ‘undetermined’, report finds

Pauline McNeill, Glasgow Labour MSP has written to the Director of the Art School Professor Penny Macbeth following the report into he fire by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Glasgow Times: Pauline McNeill in Holyrood

The MSP has concerns about the treatment of local residents and businesses following the fire, with people locked out of their homes and many small businesses forced to close completely.

McNeill is concerned the Art School is being prioritised over the ABC.

She said “We know the Mackintosh will be rebuilt but what about the ABC, the other one that was destroyed.

She added: “Lessons need to be learned not just about the fire itself but how the local community was dealt with.”

In her letter to Professor Macbeth, the MSP raised concerns about a lack of communication between the Art School and the ABC owners.

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She said: “The Art School fire caused devastation to the local community and many businesses never recovered. This section of Sauchiehall Street has been dramatically altered and the continued absence of the ABC music venue remains a detriment to local businesses and to the wider music sector in the city. I cannot overstate how important it is that a music venue of that size and stature return to the site as soon as possible.

Glasgow Times:

“It is my current understanding that the School of Art has a live objection to rebuilding work beginning on the ABC site lodged with Glasgow City Council, and that at present there is a lack of dialogue between both parties.”

Glasgow School of Art said Professor Macbeth has received the letter from Pauline McNeil and she will respond to it.

McNeill said the residents in the area would be disappointed following the publication of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service report on the Glasgow School of Art fire in 2018.

She added: “For the businesses and residents displaced by the fire, it simply does not provide the answers they had been hoping for over the last four years.”

Yesterday the Glasgow Times reported how the investigators have been unable to determine what started the fire that swept through Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh building.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said that due to the extensive damage at the site and the fact physical evidence was destroyed in the fire it has been unable to establish how the blaze started and recorded the origin and cause as “undetermined”.

There is a a live application with the council for listed building consent for demolition of the ABC.

There was a letter of objection from Glasgow School of Art in 2019 to demolition, but not building work.