Fence built around collapsed police station

Workers assigned to demolition works at the old Besson Street Police Station built fences with wood and galvanise yesterday in an attempt to ensure the safety of pedestrians as they walked along Picadilly Street after the building buckled under its own weight and collapsed when an excavator accidentally destroyed a key support pillar on Monday.

Newsday visited the site and were told by workers that they were building the fence as a short-term solution to the building which is scheduled for demolition.

Newsday spoke to residents in the area who said while the fence was a good idea, it could cause more harm than good if the building continued to slump and collapse.

"The amount of rubble and concrete that building would be falling with, no wooden fence could protect people from that. I just hope they realise this (fence) can't stay up forever."

Another resident suggested that the contractors seek to employ young men from the area to help in destroying the remainder of the building.

"There are a lot of unemployed youths around here, some of them are skilled labourers, so it would be good if they were out here assisting in breaking down the rest of the structure rather than having it stay here as an eyesore for weeks."