Tay Mills flats approved after government reporter overturns council decision

Plans to convert part of an old mill in Dundee city centre into 25 student flats have been approved on appeal.

The city council had refused consent for the Tay Mills development in Brown Street, but a government reporter has overturned that.

Crosslane Development Partners wants to convert a vacant shop at the A-listed mill. The council argued this would harm the character of the building because all but three of 24 internal cast-iron columns holding up a barrel roof would be in partition walls.

The developers said the alterations would be reversible and pointed out that Historic Scotland had not objected.

Reporter Michael Cunliffe believed there would be “gains and losses” but the work would be acceptable if done sensitively.

Noting that efforts to find a tenant for the shop had failed and that much of the mill was already used for student flats, he said the proposal from Crosslane would secure the building’s future.