Three blocks of flats demolished with explosives after neighbours evacuated
Three tower blocks in Scotland have been demolished using explosives this morning, sending huge plumes of dust and smoke into the sky.
Three of the four 26-storey towers in Wyndford, in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, are being demolished today to make way for 386 affordable homes and a ‘community hub’.
The fourth block will be taken down using a piece by piece method rather than explosives.
Glasgow’s skyline has changed forever as the three tower blocks collapsed following the controlled explosions.
The flats, first built in the 1960s, were home to about 6,000 people at their peak.
Hundreds of people who live nearby were forced to evacuate their homes after an exclusion zone was put in place for safety reasons.
A nearby secondary school has been used as an evacuation centre, and it was offering breakfast and lunch to affected residents.
Safedem, the company carrying out the demolition, wrote to affected locals offering them £100 Tesco vouchers as compensation for ‘out of pocket expenses’ while being temporarily evacuated.
Other measures to reduce the impact include covering St Gregory’s Catholic Church with protective sheeting to prevent the stained glass windows being damaged by dust.
Once the buildings come down, crews will use jet washers and misting systems to minimise dust in the air.
The demolition comes after a battle to try and stop the tower blocks from being torn down, instead calling for the buildings to be retrofitted.
Campaigners tried to take their fight to the UK Supreme Court, after Glasgow city council rejected calls for a full environmental study into the impact of the demolition, but last month the Court of Session in Edinburgh refused to let the appeal go ahead.
Wheatley Homes, the developers behind the project, claimed it wasn’t possible to retrofit the building because the flats were not fit for purpose and couldn’t be altered to meet modern standards for floor space, the Scottish Sun reports.
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