`Drugs den’ garages are facing demolition
Council take action
A long-running saga over dilapidated garages has moved closer to a conclusion.
Stirling Council has determined the 13 privately-owned garages at the rear of Forth Crescent, Riverside, are in a dangerous condition and have to be demolished. The news was last week welcomed by Riverside Commununity Council which has been complaining about the site for 10 years.
At last Wednesday’s community council meeting, secretary Ann Graham said she had received a letter concerning the garages from from John-Paul Breslin, Stirling Council’s building standards team leader. She said: “The garages are deemed to be dangerous and have been fenced off. It will be put to the owners that it is now up to them to have the garages demolished.
“If they fail to do that, there will be an enforcement order and they will be charged for the cost of the demolition.”
Many of the garages are owned by people who live nearby. However, the buildings are not not properly secured and the area is overgrown. There is also a history of the site being used for the taking of illegal drugs, and discarded needles and drug parphernalia have been found there.
In 2008-09, an Amenity Notice was served on the 13 owners urging them to clear the site. The clear-up failed to take place and legal action to compel owners to do the work was ruled out after the Procurator Fiscal determined that such a move was “not in the wider public interest”.
Stirling Council also declined to carry out the work and bill the owners. However, at the November meeting of the community council, Mrs Graham said Stirling Council’s planning and enforcement officer Lynne Currie had now written to the owners asking them to improve the area by undertaking a general clearance of the site.