By David Leask

ANOTHER Scottish council has announced proposals to pull down all its high rises after London’s Grenfell disaster.

North Ayrshire says it wants to replace its seven tower blocks with low-rise homes rather than spend millions on sprinklers and other upgrades for the buildings.

Its move comes after Scotland’s biggest council landlord, North Lanarkshire, said it planned to demolish its even bigger stock of high flats.

But North Ayrshire wants to move even faster than North Lanarkshire, replacing nearly 400 homes by 2023.

The local authority has checked its blocks – five in Irvine and two in Saltcoats – and found they do not have the cladding linked to the fire at Grenfell tower, believed to have claimed 71 lives.

One of the Irvine blocks was the scene of a blaze, in 1999, which last provoked an upgrade of skyscraper safety.

But it has found upgrades to the homes and maintenance would cost £22 million over the 25 years. Yet knocking them down and putting up new – better houses – would cost only £22m more.

Council leader Joe Cullinane yesterday began a formal consultation with residents over the proposals.

He said: “In the coming weeks and months, we will speak to all of our residents and offer them the chance to tell us face-to-face their thoughts on these ambitious proposals.

“From my point of view, this is an amazing opportunity to not only improve the quality of our council houses, but to improve the lives of our tenants and help with the ongoing transformation and regeneration of both the Fullarton and Saltcoats communities.

“There are clear links between better housing and better health – if we can provide that better standard of accommodation to our tenants, we can see their quality of life improve at the same time.”

A final decision on the high flats is unlikely to be made until later this year, said council officials. Tenants and home-owners will get a say.

The North Ayrshire Council cabinet will hear three options for the blocks next Tuesday.

These are:

l Retain all seven towers blocks and launch an improvements programme, including installation of sprinklers, alongside regular maintenance at a total cost of £22.5m over 25 years.

l Demolish all seven blocks and replace with low-rise housing constructed on-site and elsewhere, at a net additional cost of £22.1m, to be completed by 2023.

l Demolish the five Irvine tower blocks only, with replacement low-rise housing constructed on-site and elsewhere, and retain the Saltcoats tower blocks, at a net additional cost of £14.4m.

If cabinet approves the options, a consultation will begin next month and its findings discussed by the council in the summer.

Mr Cullinane added: “The relatively small difference in costs between retaining the high flats and building new properties means it’s definitely worth exploring if this is the best option for both our tenants and the council.

“Rather than spend millions of pounds maintaining ageing high flats, would it be better to redirect that money to invest in new, high-quality housing?

“We are committed to investing in our communities and have already laid out our intention to complete the construction of 1,000 new homes across North Ayrshire by 2022.”

The five Irvine blocks at Fullarton dominate the skyline of the Clyde coast town. Their demolition would come after the town’s iconic Magnum centre was bulldozed.

The Irvine high-rises have no owner-occupiers. There are several in the Saltcoats flats and they will be subject to compulsory purchase orders.

North Lanarkshire Council said it aims to pull down more than 4,000 high-rise homes over two decades.

Council leader Jim Logue late last year said the demolitions would be part of a £500m move to breathe new life in to local medium-sized town centres, such as Coatbridge, Motherwell and Airdrie.