A town centre warehouse needs to be ‘urgently demolished’ as it is in such a dangerous state it poses a risk to pedestrians, drivers and nearby homes.
The three-storey Travis Perkins building which fronts onto Bark Street and Chorley Street in Bolton town centre has ‘destabilistion’, a sagging roof and areas of the warehouse have already collapsed.
Documents published by Bolton Council this week reveal the firm is looking to knock down the building as a matter of urgency. The documents also reveal that an electricity sub station is housed in the warehouse and that if a building collapse happened and affected that equipment, it ‘could result in the loss of power to a significant number of buildings in the locality’.
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The application for demolition said: “This submission follows extensive discussions with the council’s building control and planning teams to discuss the most appropriate way to deal with the warehouse building which is deemed to be in a dangerous state and requires urgent demolition given the proximity to vehicular and pedestrian highways and residential properties.
“The structural condition report confirms that there are areas of the building which are prohibited for use by Travis Perkins due to their condition. There are areas of the building which have collapsed and existing metal work is subject to severe penetrative corrosion with existing woodwork identified as being rotten.
“There is a destabilisation of the Chorley Street elevation and there is visible sagging of the roof, which with an increased load such as snow could lead to overload and subsequent failure.
“Furthermore, the existing extensions to the building do not appear to be tied into main building thereby impacting on the integrity of all the buildings concerned.”
The documents gave further information on the sub station inside operated by Electricity North West. The application added: “Given the precarious condition of the building, there is a further need to ensure that the buildings are demolished in a timely manner to ensure that the sub station is not impacted, which in turn could result in the loss of power to a significant number of buildings in the locality.”
A structural survey expanded on the risks to the Chorley Street side of the building. It said: “The ground floor structure has locally collapsed with severe penetrative corrosion to the steel supporting members to the front elevation.
“Failure of this may result in collapse of the associated ground floor area, in turn leading to destabilisation of the Chorley Street elevation.
“The roof is visibly sagging towards this end of the building with guttering loose. This is of specific concern during the winter months, where increased imposed load such as snow is more likely leading to overload and subsequent failure of the roof structure.”
If the demolition application is approved works will be carried out between 8:30am – 5pm, Monday to Friday and 9am- 2pm on Saturdays.
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