Demolition begins at Wirral landmark

Contractors have started removing a former laboratory that sits on top of Bidston Hill, Wirral.

The Proudman Building's fate was sealed when English Heritage recently decided not to accord it listed status.

As a result a tender process for demolition was carried out with the £118,000 contract being awarded to Glasgow-based Hunter Demolition.

Fittingly the firm's motto is 'creating new horizons', for when the job is complete hill-walkers will have uninterrupted views of the Liverpool skyline.

The building's owners, the National Environment Research Council applied to Wirral Council for permission to remove it after failing to find a buyer.

There was a brief stay of execution when lobby group Bidston Preservation Trust asked English Heritage to protect it as a listed building. It was created in 1979 and operated until 2004 when scientists moved out to the University of Liverpool.

Its stands next to the Bidston Observatory, another building in the ownership of NERC which failed to attract a buyer.

However, the adjacent lighthouse and keeper's cottage were sold to a private buyer last year.

Demoltion work on the Proudman Building will take an estimated five months.