Capitol Car Park set for Sunday blast…

Retailers and residents braced for early morning implosion.

The derelict Capitol Car Park in Newport city centre will be demolished with explosives tomorrow morning.

An exclusion zone will come into effect early on Sunday morning for the controlled demolition, with 11 roads due to be closed from as early as 7am in the morning.

The work will be conducted by the Cuddy Group, which is currently demolishing the car park, shops in John Frost Square and the old Newport Bus Station.

The order will allow the demolition of the capitol multi-storey car park to be carried out in a controlled and safe manner, according to the notice.

It is anticipated that the works will be completed within 30 minutes.

The Welsh Government has provided £1.5 million for the demolition work which will prepare the ground for Queensberry Real Estate to build the Friars Walk shopping and leisure development.

Newport council recently agreed to provide the developer a £90 million loan, which it will itself borrow from the Public Works Loans Board.

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