THE demolition of buildings most severely damaged by the New Ferry explosion in March will get underway next week.

The properties coming down are numbers 56 to 66 Bebington Road, which took the brunt of the explosion.

The affected properties are a mixture of ground floor businesses with residential accommodation above. Affected residents are now in alternative accommodation and work to find new premises for all displaced businesses, which include the popular Lan’s Chinese restaurant and Ming Yuan’s beauty parlour, is ongoing.

The contract for the works has been awarded to FTS Demolition Ltd, a local company from Hoylake.

They will have ownership of the site from 6am on Tuesday and it is anticipated that the first few days next week will be spent setting up the site compound and carrying out a number of tests to the buildings before they start the process of bringing them down.

The demolition phase is expected to take approximately 10 weeks and as the work is being done inside the existing hoarding with the footway remaining open, this should not cause major disruption to residents or businesses alike.

The council will shortly be taking some early regeneration plans for the New Ferry area out to residents to get their views. Further details of these events will follow over the coming week.