Demolition of Preston’s former Market Hall and car park remains on track – despite a wrangle over demolishing a ramp.

Preston City Council is working to take down the building piece-by-piece but Blog Preston understands there is a stand-off with Lancashire County Council over how to demolish the Market Hall car park ramp.

The ramp faces into the Ringway and any work during the day would force the major route through the city to close.

But work undertaken at night would disturb nearby residential properties.

The Indoor Market building is seeing internal demolition work at present, and the car park, which closed in January this year, is seeing the same.

Cabinet member for environment councillor Robert Boswell said: “The demolition of the market car park ramp is the next crucial phase and we hope to share more information soon. We are working with our partners to keep the demolition project on schedule.

“We thank the public and surrounding businesses for their continued patience and understanding whilst these works take place.”

What the county council had to say

Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “On any major road, such as Ringway, we have to carefully consider permission for work on the highway, taking into account the impact on people’s journeys and the length of time needed.

“Our aim is to minimise the inconvenience that the closure of a lane would cause on such a key road.

“We’ve asked for advanced signage to be put in place to alert drivers on key routes into the city, and we’ll temporarily re-programme the traffic signals around this area of the city centre while this work is carried out, to help the traffic flow.

“We have reached agreement with the city council and their contractor about the duration of the lane closure for this work, and we are in the process of agreeing a date for this to happen.”

The Markets redevelopment

The city council is knocking down the Market Hall and car park to build a £50million cinema and restaurant complex, along with a new car park.

Demolition work is costing around £1.5million.

Initial proposals included the demolition of the majority of Lancastria House but it was confirmed in February this year the building would stay standing and the city council is attempting to sell it off.

An amended planning application for the scaled-down Preston Markets development is due to be put in later this year by the city council.

Read more: Butchers quit Preston Market Hall in dramatic fashion

The new cinema and restaurant complex is due to open during 2021.

Read more: Preston Council’s financial position is improving