Campaigners have launched a petition to oppose the proposed extension at Holyrood, which will create a brand new security facility at the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) took a decision earlier this month to proceed with the project, which will see a £6.48m addition to the 2005 Stirling-Prize winning building.

The Campaign Group to preserve the Architectural Integrity of the Scottish Parliament Buildings collected signatures outside Holyrood last weekend.

The original building was designed by Enric Miralles and international architect firm RMJM, who have criticised the proposed extension along with other architects and Edinburgh City’s design leader Riccardo Marini.

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John Kinsley, project architect for RMJM on the original scheme at Holyrood, suggested that the new extension might actually increase the risk of visitors and people entering the building.

"The proposals destroy the integrity of the original building whilst providing no improvement to the security of the building", he said.

"The parliament was designed at its inception with highly defined security requirements integrated into the building. These new proposals are ill considered - they will actually increase the risk to parliament visitors."

A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: "The clear and consistent security advice is that we should build an external security facility, as we have a duty of care to the 400,000 people who visit Holyrood each year.

"The SPCB is satisfied that Edinburgh-based design team Lee Boyd has produced a design that is very sympathetic to the Parliament’s architecture and surrounding environment.

"While we do not comment on the exact detail of our security measures, we are fully satisfied the design meets blast requirements at distance and close quarters."

Construction is set to begin next month, with the extension being finished by summer 2013.

(IT)