THE owners of a Bridge Street building in Kelso have applied to give their town centre property a makeover. 

David and Graeme Brechin, of Grant Avenue, Edinburgh, have applied to Scottish Borders Council for permission to renovate and repair the exterior of 6 Bridge Street. 

The building is home to commercial properties, with a women’s clothes shop and charity shop occupying the ground floor, and the upper floors are divided into office accommodation. 

The application outlined the aims of the proposal: “Recently stonework had fallen off the building resulting in building standards involvement on public safety grounds and a scaffold has been erected.

“Various options for repair have been considered, including renewing all the damaged stone with new natural stone indents but with 75 percent of the elevation delaminating it is prohibitively expensive and disproportionate to the capital value of the premises. 

“Repairing individual stones in lithomix was also consider but is also not possible because of the large proportion of the façade needing repaired.

“The option the applicant wishes to pursue is for a more extensive render repair by cutting back virtually all of the facing stone, fixing an expanded metal base then expertly and uniformly stucco-rendering the façade, scoring it to simulate ashlar stonework. 

“Careful treatment around the window dressing, decorative eaves cornice and quoins will be carried out prior to the render coat application by a reputable, local stonemason, who will replace or repair the decorative stone to retain the character of the building.” 

The application will now be considered by Scottish Borders Council planning officers.