Dundee City Council is to seek compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) in order to progress its plans to demolish 26 flats and replace them with modern flats and a shop.

In a private meeting held on Monday evening, councillors agreed to pay owner occupiers of the flats at 219-245 Blackness Road for their properties. Sixteen of the flats are currently let to council tenants.

According to a report in The Courier, the local authority will spend around £300,000 buying the flats they do not own if the proposal to use CPOs is approved by the Scottish Government.

Dundee City Council took a decision in October 2017 to demolish the properties, which were originally built in the 1890s, after it deemed the costs repairs were too high.

The demolition and redevelopment option will cost an estimated £4.5 million and is necessary to bring about “good quality, energy efficient affordable homes”, the council said.

Former housing convener Jimmy Black has long led calls for the local authority to reconsider its decision to demolish the tenement as he believes money could be saved by repairing the block instead.

He has argued that the cost of repairing the stairwells, which has been put at between £880,000 and £1.2m, is preferable and cheaper than spending £4.5m to demolish the tenements down and rebuild on the site.

Mr Black has also questioned a council report which recommended the demolition as “seriously misleading” and highlighting a lack of consultation among the affected tenants,

The report had claimed that a majority of residents backed the plans but a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that six private landlords who do not live there had been counted as “residents”.

Responding to the compulsory purchase orders decision, Mr Black told The Courier: “There is no good reason to demolish these flats.

“If there wasn’t a housing crisis and there was lots of money it might be a good thing to replace them with modern flats but we are not in that position.

“The cost of doing that is far more than the cost of refurbishment. This decision has been misconceived since the beginning.”

Mr Black said he did not know why councillors opted to make their decision about the flats in private.

He said: “This should be public information. When the sales go through they will be recorded on the Scottish Land Register so it will be possible for the public to find out what they have paid.

“There is no reason that I can think of for them not to reveal the information.”