Furious councillors are to write to the Scottish Government over plans for the £120million redevelopment of Queen Street Station.

They are outraged Network Rail can press ahead with the work without getting permission from city planners.

Senior councillors believe they should have input into the design of the dramatic new station entrance as it is in a conservation area and on the edge of the city's historic civic square.

Under Transport and Works Scotland (TAWS), Network Rail does not need to ask the city council for planning permission but can ask Scottish Ministers to agree the scheme.

But the decision to sideline the council has angered members of the planning committee who unanimously agreed to raise the issue in Holyrood.

Committee vice convener Jonathan Findlay said: "I am extremely unhappy this is not going to be considered by the planning department or the planning committee.

"The new facade is in a conservation area at the very corner of our civil square and it is not going to come in front of democratically elected members of this council.

"I think that is an absolute disgrace. Like or loathe the design, it should be coming to the planning committee as we need to see how it relates to other buildings."

Liz Cameron, the council's jobs and the economy spokeswoman, agreed to write Scottish Ministers asking them to urge Network Rail to apply to the council for planning permission.

She said: "There is enough centralism without planning being centralised. I am deeply angry about this."

Network Rail is to extend platforms in Queen Street to allow longer trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh which will require the frontage to be moved forward.

Mr Findlay said he understood why Network Rail did not have to apply for planning permission for technical elements of the scheme.

But he added: "This project is on a prominent corner of the main civic square in Glasgow and I don't think it is acceptable that the city council and its elected representatives should have no say in that other than as a consultee whose views can be ignored.

"If the Scottish Government has the power, it should compel Network Rail to bring the application to the planning committee.

"It is fundamental that the council, as the local planning body, should have the right to properly assess the quality of the design of the new Queen Street station.

"It seems they are doing things under the radar but because we will be looking at this building from George Square we need to make sure they are getting it right."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "TAWS is the process developed by the Scottish Parliament to ensure a rigorous yet streamlined way of delivering a strategic railway investment.

"The Queen Street redevelopment is one element of the wider Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) electrification programme which cuts across eight local authorities and TAWS is the best method of ensuring we keep the wider programme of works to a tight schedule. "Making sure the station reflects the needs of Glaswegians is important to Network Rail and we have undertaken two phases of consultation to gather their views and evolve our plans for the station based on the public's feedback."