WE WILL NOT BE MOVED!
Bid to blow up f lats for Games opening ceremony in chaos as residents facing eviction vow:
FAMILIES living near flats set for demolition at the Commonwealth Games have thrown the plans into crisis – by refusing to leave the blast zone. People living in the shadow of Glasgow’s Red Road
tower blocks will be told to evacuate the area when five of the buildings are blown up as part of the opening ceremony this summer.
But yesterday residents of two streets in the blast zone said they would not quit their homes for such an ‘insane’ and ‘insensitive’ stunt – leaving Games organisers with a major health and safety headache.
The development is the latest stage in a row over the ‘ crass’ move to demolish the high-rises in the north of Glasgow during the opening ceremony.
Organisers last week announced plans to beam images of the destruction of the
vertical villages to a billion-strong audience around the world. But the proposals have been widely condemned and more than 16,000 people have signed a petition in protest.
Now, in a bold demonstration of people-power, those living within an ‘exclusion zone’ surrounding the flats could halt the demolition and ruin the centrepiece with an act of civil disobedience.
A meeting being held today could see even more families join the protest.
Last night, Michelle Ronald, a motherof-three who lives beside Red Road flats, said: ‘We had to act to stop this demolition. Blowing up the city for “entertainment” at the opening ceremony is inappropriate.
‘Blowing up five at once will leave us with tons of rubble and a giant dust cloud. These are people’s memories which are being destroyed and it has nothing to do with the Games.
‘I am definitely not going to be leaving my home – they will have to drag me out.’
The simultaneous explosion of the five Red Road flats, which will take just 15 seconds, will be broadcast on a big screen at the opening ceremony in Celtic Park on July 23.
Games organisers predict more than a billion people from around the world will be watching on television.
Miss Ronald’s home is one of 887 in the north of Glasgow which will be evacuated to make way for the spectacle. The sheer number of people falling
‘It is insensitive and ridiculous’
within the exclusion zone will make it extremely difficult to police. Already several residents have told the Scottish Daily Mail they will refuse to move in protest at the flats being included in the opening ceremony.
A meeting today for residents from Broomfield Crescent, Broomfield Road and the wider area, is expected to see more join the campaign.
Many are afraid of the damage to their homes from five Red Road flats coming down at once for the opening ceremony, rather than individually over the space of a year as originally planned.
Karen Busby, 36, a cleaner and mother of four from Broomfield, said: ‘I think it is insensitive and ridiculous to bring down the flats for entertainment.
‘Glasgow Housing Association are telling us this will be more convenient for us than exploding one block at a time, but this has nothing to do with our convenience.
‘There will be five times the rubble and dust. One block coming down causes a huge vibration – with five coming down at once you just don’t know what the damage will be.’
Tina Suffredini, 55, a neighbouring childcare manager who owns her own home in Broomfield Crescent, said: ‘There was no consultation with neighbours of the flats, no negotiation with any residents, who found out this was happening through the media. To show this all over the world – people’s memories being made a spectacle – is shameful. I will be staging a sit-in and I won’t back down.’
Refuse collector Alexander Watson, 49, added: ‘When I heard this, I thought it was insane. It doesn’t seem right that what people will first see of Glasgow is five buil di ngs being bl own to smithereens.’
Dundee demolition firm Safedem is charged with bringing the buildings down. Organisers insist the blow-down will go ahead only ‘if and when it is safe’. Charles Moran, a fellow of the Institute of Explosives Engineers, said last night: ‘If you have people within an exclusion zone, it is no longer an exclusion zone.
‘I would have thought the Health and Safety Executive would be stepping in if it became known the exclusion zone could not be evacuated.’
With pressure mounting on those behind the plans, the Scottish Conservatives have called on First Minister
Alex Salmond to intervene. Conservative MSP and sport spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘It is very clear indeed that the Red Road flats part of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games is highly controversial and now deeply unpopular amongst several sections of t he Glasgow community.
‘Given the strength of feeling, the organisers of 2014 really need to listen and address what is fast becoming a major distraction from the Games themselves.’
Glasgow Housing Association, which owns the Red Road flats, has refused to provide any information on how it will remove residents. It could lead to the embarrassing scenario of police officers dragging families forcibly from their homes while the world is watching on the day of the opening ceremony.
Billy Smith, director of Glasgow-based Complete Clarity Solicitors, which specialises in housing law, said: ‘An exclusion order issued to these householders would instruct them to be out of their property at a certain time, due to the fact there is a safety risk. If a family refused to leave, the police might be called, who could remove these people from the property on the grounds of protecting their health.’
But the legal rights of the families involved were the subject of some confusion last night. Another source suggested the police would not be involved and that the housing association would need a court order to evict people from their homes.
Deputy Chief Constable Steve Allen, security director for the Commonwealth Games, said: ‘We are working with partners to ensure this element of the celebrations is safe and are confident in our capacity to meet the range of demands presented by the Commonwealth Games.’
A further headache for the housing association will come from the compensation to which families may be entitled.
Last year it is understood 22 homeowners were given £100 each for the inconvenience of being forced to leave their houses. One resident said the association had asked her to keep the payment quiet from her neighbours who had not received money.
Experts said if householders lost money through no fault of their own, and could prove this, they were likely to be entitled to compensation. A spokesman for the housing association said: ‘The demolition of the remaining blocks was always planned and so the evacuation of the area was always going to happen.’