Car park faces demolition day

Stourbridge's Bell Street car park will be turned to rubble in seconds, contractors revealed today as plans for its demolition gather pace ahead of a town centre revamp.

A series of minor explosions will help bring the car park down to make way for a new £50 million Tesco redevelopment. More than 100 nearby properties will be evacuated.

The demolition is due one day next month and an exclusion zone surrounding the site will be in place for 24 hours.

The exclusion zone will take in sections of the town's ring road and residents who have to move out of the homes will be able to go to an evacuation centre.

Contactors Bowmer & Kirkland said preparation work to remove three walkways between the car park and the Crown Centre would begin this Sunday.

The car park will be 'blown down' early next month and the work will start to detach the shopping centre from the listed town hall before it is knocked down gradually.

Work to demolish the complex is expected to take three to four months.

Both the library and the Crystal Leisure Centre will be closed on the demolition day – a date for which has not yet been released.

Contracts manager Christian Parnell said the car park would be brought down in seconds. He said: "Bec-ause of the car park's age and the way it was constructed, a controlled explosion is the best method."

Some preparation work has already begun to create a temporary entrance to the town hall off Market Street while the historic mosaic has been safely removed from the floor of the Crown Centre. Tesco spokesman Jonathan Simpson said they were aiming to have the supermarket open in time for Christmas 2013.