Bridge Street Update

Re: 21 Bridge Street, Northampton:

The Council’s Building Control team were required to intervene under their dangerous structures remit, given the precarious state of No.21 Bridge Street. This necessitated the fencing off of the roadway in Bridge Street given the condition of the building facade facing onto Bridge Street. In order to force the owner (21 Bridge Street is in private ownership) to expedite addressing the safety issues the Council sought an application for a ‘dangerous building/structure order’ under section 77(1) of the Building Act 1984.

A legal tribunal subsequently instructed (in January 2024) that the works be completed by 12 April 2024 (the schedule of works includes addressing the Bridge Street building façade). Works to make 21 Bridge Street safe and carry out a more detailed inspection commenced on site. However the applicants structural engineer identified complexities. A variation was sought to the timeframe specified in the order. As part of the tribunal process the building owner was asked to give a realistic timeframe for demolition works; and the tribunal, based on the information provided by the building owner, has set a new deadline of 6 September 2024 for completion of works specified in the Order or total demolition. The owner has told the Council that the demolition works are scheduled to start shortly, but for safety reasons this will involve a grabber moving from an access point off Angel Street, with a latter part of the demolition works dealing with the Bridge Street façade (unfortunately, for safety reasons, the Bridge Street façade cannot be demolished directly from Bridge Street). Council officers will be very closely monitoring the demolition works when they commence to ensure they are expedited as quickly as possible and Bridge Street re-opened as soon as it is possible to do so.