Council / Museum gets the go ahead for extension
SCALLOWAY Museum has received planning permission for an external display area that will play host to a number of the museum’s boats.
The planned extension, that will include timber-framed three-sided boat shelters, concrete slab paving and gravel display areas, will entail archaeological excavation.
It will fit in with existing external aspects of the museum which was opened in 2012 by Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Shetland Islands Council planning committee decided to pass the plans on Wednesday though some members expressed reservations about the cost of archaeological works that will have to be borne by the museum.
Councillor Cecil Smith said that the last time excavations were done at the back of the castle a specialist had to be taken up from south at considerable expense because there was no one locally at the time to do the work.
Committee chairman Theo Smith said that he was concerned that there might be no funding for the work to be done, but planning officer Claire Summers said that the applicant was fully aware of the work that would be involved.
The proposal is located in the north part of the scheduled area around the early seventeenth century Scalloway Castle and is at the far corner of the museum from the castle.
According to a planning report the “standing tower is an impressive monument and the castle would have had ancillary buildings and yards extending over the area around it. While these are no longer apparent on the surface, they survive as archaeological remains and form an integral part of the castle’s significance.”
The boat sheds will be clad in vertical Siberian larch weatherboarding matching the existing boat shed, and the development within the Scalloway Conservation Area “should preserve or enhance its character.”
Trench excavation will be required, the committee heard, to uncover if there is anything of significance on the museum extension site.
A “watching brief” would also have to be maintained to make sure excavations involved in the extension were not disturbing archaeologically significant remains.
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