Road to reopen at long last

Work to demolish a firedamaged building in Coatbridge town centre and reopen a road which has been closed for over a year has been welcomed by local councillors.

The Advertiser told last month how the building on the corner of Main Street and Academy Street is now being taken down and the site levelled, following a fire in March 2017.

Co a tbr idg e No r th councillor Allan Stubbs had raised a motion on the issue at the recent meeting of North Lanarkshire Council, and called the start of the demolition “welcome progress”.

He said: “I’m delighted that work is starting to get Academy Street back open and restore Coatbridge town centre to normality.

“I’d ask that there’s a full review of the procedures in place to deal with situations like this, to be brought to a future enterprise and housing committee.

“Council officers have done good work over the past year and have felt the brunt from members of the community – but we can’t have another situation where a major town centre is brought to a standstill for a year by fire.”

Traders on Academy Street had submitted a petition in November calling for swift action to reopen the road, closed to create a safety exclusion zone, after months of reduced footfall.