An abandoned housing estate near Glasgow, which has been dubbed 'Scotland's Chernobyl', is set to be bulldozed after a long dispute between private landlords and and Inverclyde Council, with the local authority confirming officers had been instructed to prepare for compulsory purchase.
Clune Park was once a thriving housing scheme in Port Glasgow filled with a community of shipyard workers in the 1920s, however, it now lies in ruin.
It is believed that Less than 10 per cent of residents currently live in the 430-flat estate after it was abandoned, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
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The site was once the cheapest place to buy property in Britain after one flat sold for just £7,000 at auction.
The scheme is now frequently targeted by vandals and arsonists, with some properties heavily damaged by fire, while a church and primary school on the estate are also boarded up.
Urban explorer Kyle Urbex toured the eerie housing estate last year and he was surprised that people still lived there.
He told the Daily Record: "One of the things that struck me the most was that the majority of the flat blocks are abandoned and derelict but some people are still living there. Some flats still had lots of possessions in them, like someone had gone out for the day and never came back.
"Outside of the flats, it is surprising to see people still going about their normal lives and going into houses next to the estate when 80 per cent of it is derelict. It is sad in a way to see what would have once been a thriving community, where everyone knew each other, all falling into itself in a derelict state."
Plans to demolish the housing estate have been discussed for over a decade, with private landlords refusing to sell to Inverclyde Council.
A new development at the beginning of the year saw the local authority confirm it would pursue compulsory purchase orders as part of a two-phased plan to create between 100 and 120 new homes. It is hoped the first phase will be completed by 2027.
Council leader Stephen McCabe told the Greenock Telegraph: "We've acquired over 50 per cent of the properties and there's ongoing attempts to acquire individual flats. There's a number of properties that have essentially fallen to the Crown and we have to go through a process for that too.
"There are still a couple of large landlords and there have been ongoing discussions with one of them which haven't come to a successful conclusion. Undoubtedly we will need to go down the compulsory purchase route, we're preparing for that. The council has given authority to officers to start that process."
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