Inside the apocalyptic Scottish estate dubbed 'Britain's answer to Chernobyl' which is FINALLY being torn down after decades of decay despite five people still living there

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

It's been described as looking like an eerie scene from a post apocalyptic film, a beastly place where vandalism, drug addiction and prostitution were rife in every nook and cranny.
These days, the infamous run down Clune Estate in Port Glasgow is strangely quieter but that's only because the ghost town is finally being bulldozed into the ground.
Construction workers are now arming themselves with extra thick gloves and steel capped footwear to avoid needles and broken glass as they erase the landmark from sight.
Labelled the Scottish Chernobyl on account of its similarity to the abandoned Ukrainian town of Pripyat near Chernobyl, the Clune Estate had fallen into a spiral of decline.
After property values plummeted to almost nothing in the area following the decline of the shipyards in the 1990s, the few families that remained moved out and it became a drug and crime hotspot.
Of course, it wasn't always like this.
Once a thriving pocket of Port Glasgow and home to the workers of shipbuilder Lithgow after the First World War, the Clune Estate boasted its own church school and community centre as well as local shops and offices.
It was a sought after community, where people felt safe on the streets, and local kids would go out on their bikes at night.
But then as the shipbuilding industry suffered, the prosperous tenants deserted and private landlords took over, housing social security residents through council partnerships.
Social and economic problems around the Port Glasgow area meant the estate became a toxic landscape of drug taking and crime, a place where fires were started regularly - 14 in the space of eight months at one point.
From 480 happy families, resident numbers diminished in the last fourteen years to around five people who are still in residence, holding tight to a past that is no more.
Most, of course, were only too happy to escape.
When MailOnline visited this week, we saw bulldozers hard at work demolishing the shells of apartments as part of a six month long project to finally remove the stain of the estate.
Whilst on a lunch break, one construction worker told us the work was hard and nerve wracking as he and his colleagues were scared of finding infected needles amongst the rubble.
He also pointed out the still sturdy blocks of bricks that now lay strewn across the wasteland after he and his company finally razed them to the ground.
As we looked around the now hollow shop facades and offices nearby, he explained that the once thriving estate had become a hot spot for arsonists who had set fire to the school and church and adjoining community centre after the council closed them down years ago.
Lead and pipes were stolen after the burnout.
The ground on which the barren estate lies has now been earmarked for new homes as part of a big push to better the area.
The council initially planned a regeneration scheme more than fourteen years ago according to one of the biggest landlords in the area, David Hay Smith.
In fact, a document from 2007 outlines a vision for a safer and better area, which until now has been delayed.
However David, 72, claims councilors dragged their feet leaving him and the little community in limbo, before forcing his tenants out of their homes with empty promises of a new better life.
David, who lives nearby with his family, claims he lost over three quarter of a million pounds waiting for years for the council to demolish the flats he owned and he now plans to take the case to a Land Tribunal.
As the biggest landlord in the area, David who patrols the area in his black Range Rover, and is well known to locals, owned 76 of the flats in the estate and still has one left which houses the last remaining inhabitants.
He said he first talked with the council about plans for the area over twenty years ago and having grown up there was keen to cooperate with them about improvements from the estate.
He explained : 'I have a lot of good memories from here. It spawned a lot of successes as well as some failures. I ran about out there when I was four, five, six. Then I joined the scouts, and was still running about at 12, 13, 14. I'm born here and raised here.
'I never thought I'd end up with 76 properties here - all part of a portfolio- but from even before 2011 I was told there were plans to regenerate the area. And three years ago the council bought the properties off me apart from one that I still own.
He added: 'I was told that the going rate or the district value was between £23-29,000 per property and I initially managed to sell around forty of them off at a decent price.
'However the council would only give me £3,500 per remaining property and they made out I owed them money on taxes - double the normal tax for having the properties empty for so long even though they made me empty them.
'So I'm currently missing around three quarters of a million pounds.'
He added: 'I had thought that maybe they would reroof them, put in new doors and windows or whatever and just clean up the area.
'The school was meant to be a listed building and saved, but like everything else they've just flattened it now so let's see if they keep to their word about regeneration.'
Like another local we encountered during our visit, he admits the Clune estate had big problems but insists it was self contained.
He said: 'They fought among themselves. Young lads become hostile to their parents. The parents put them out and we took them in. And the council ask: 'Can you take them? We'll pay you. There were alcoholics too.'
'We had a community here. I'm not saying it was the strongest, but it was nice at one point. It's where I grew up..'
Longterm resident Marshall Craig, 82, says he has no plans to move from the area. As one of around five people left there he says he can deal with any trouble.
He explained: 'I've been here five years, but they should have waited till we're all out, before they bulldozed the other flats. I love this because it's quiet here.
'Regardless of what people say, it might have been that it had its bonfires, smashed windows and that all down there but this was the management side and it was OK.
'I have bay windows and it's a beautiful flat. I don't want to shift from here and I'm not moving.'