Quayside demolition work on schedule

AC Ltd began to take down 100 tonnes of the material from the North Side site in mid-October, working with the Health and Safety Executive to ensure its safe disposal.

‘I’ve been involved in some very large projects, like the old bus garage and a few warehouses,’ said director Jason Croft, ‘but this is definitely one of the largest jobs Guernsey has seen in terms of asbestos roofing.’

A team of six has finished removing the corrugated roofing panels, which have been double-wrapped in polythene and buried at Mont Cuet at a cost of £625 per tonne.

‘There’s very little left for us to do on site now, but we’ll be back to check the floor slabs at the end of the process,’ he said.

Work on the roof had to be halted on some windy days but the company had other work to conduct on site during those periods, with other licensed products being removed under controlled conditions.

The type of asbestos being removed is bonded and therefore among the least hazardous. Nevertheless, Mr Croft said the States was planning to ship such material off-island from next year due to Mont Cuet’s increasingly limited capacity.

Site manager Roger Froome, the joint managing director of Bob Froome Ltd, said the demolition work would continue until mid-January, with the perimeter walls being retained and everything else being levelled down to slab level.

‘I’ve worked on bigger demolition projects, like the Royal Hotel,’ he said, ‘but in terms of square footage, this is one of the biggest. It’s only one floor but there was a suspended ceiling and a lot of rubbish to be cleared. It’s okay once you get in and get a rhythm going. It’s all gone according to plan.’

As well as AC Ltd dealing with the roofing, all the removed wood has been taken to Island Waste at Pointes Lane and the steel has been recycled.

‘From the road, you won’t really see too much difference because of the walls being retained, but it’s been quite a job,’ Mr Froome said.

Adrian Norman, director of J & D Norman, which owns the site, said the company was working with architect Lovell Ozanne to design a new retail project within the parameters of the relevant planning guidance regarding the number of storeys, site density and traffic impacts.

According to Lovell Ozanne director Andrew Male, the owner has been advised by Planning that until the local planning briefs [LPB] for the St Peter Port and St Sampson’s Harbour Action Areas are complete, any redevelopment proposals would need to demonstrate that they do not prejudice the outcomes of the LPB process.

‘Our client awaits update from the Planning department regarding progress with the LPB,’ he said.

He added that the work to remove asbestos was ‘precautionary to ensure safe removal as the supporting structure was beginning to degrade’.

Quayside closed as a household goods shop in 2014 and an application was made to demolish it in 2016 to erect three new retail units.

This was granted, but the work was never carried out and the permission lapsed.

• Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LTkxjQCO6Y to see a video of the site from an aerial perspective.