RESIDENTS are to be allowed back into their homes 10 weeks after the second fire which gutted the Mackintosh building.

The safety cordon is expected to be reduced further on Saturday to allow residents who live to the east of the fire ravaged building back into their homes.

Businesses and residents on the south side of Sauchiehall Street opposite the 02 ABC will also be allowed back into their premises.

Residents were informed by letter and given further details at a meeting in Garnethill last night.

People have been angry with the School of Art and Glasgow City Council the length of time they were kept out and not allowed access to retrieve personal items like car keys or passports and other essential possessions.

Residents staged a protest last month demanding access and threatening to break the cordon to temporarily access their homes.

The council warned they risked their lives if they did so and Police warned they would be arrested for their own safety.

The building was deemed unsafe and people told it could collapse suddenly without warning.

The School of Art applied to the council for permission to stabilise sections of the famous building and partially demolish external walls and dismantle part of the building in a way that would allow it to be rebuilt.

Now the council says it is ready to be declared safe and the safety cordon reduced.

There will still be a cordon on the north and west sides of the Mackintosh covering Renfrew Street and Scott Street and the north side of Sauchiehall street where the 02 ABC is.

A spokesman for Glasgow city Council, said: “Dismantling and stabilisation works on the Mackintosh Building have reached a point where a substantial part of the building should soon be considered safe.

As a result, we hope to be able to reduce the cordon to a point where residents and businesses to the East of the Mackintosh building and on the south side of Sauchiehall Street will be able to return to their properties.

“Clearly, residents and businesses will have views about how that process should take place – and we are meeting directly with those involved to discuss that.”

The news of getting access comes as residents and business owners met with lawyers to discuss possible legal action over their treatment following the fire.

Sauchiehall Street Inner Cordon Businesses met with Mike Dailly of Govan Law Centre and Pauline McNeill, Glasgow Labour MSP.

Mr Dailly said: “Glasgow City Council senior officers, Glasgow School of Art and privileged elites appear more interested in saving the Macintosh building than saving the community of Sauchiehall Street and Garnethill, which have been around a lot longer and are a special part of our city’s heritage.

“Ordinary residents and local businesses are suffering and have lost a lot of money. It’s unacceptable to be locked out of homes for so long. Residents and businesses no longer trust that the local authority is putting their needs first. Glasgow City Council cannot abrogate or evade their statutory building control duties, and allow the Glasgow School of Art to put its own interests before local people.”

Ms McNeill said: “There has been an unnecessary delay caused by building control allowing the Art School to determine the pace of this work.

People have been through trauma and some businesses may not recover from this.”