RESIDENTS had to be evacuated in the middle of the night when the front of a building collapsed.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, a stretch of St Michael's Road, Bourne-mouth, had to be closed and cordoned off by police following the collapse on Monday night.

Six tenants from the house, which is divided into flats, and from the property next door were moved to the Cremona Hotel for the night.

Carly Hone, who lives opposite, said: "We heard a crash, which sounded like a lot of bins falling over. It is very lucky that no one was walking past because they could have been killed."

Owner Nick King said a surveyor was making structural checks on the building once a month because he was concerned about the effect of development work going on nearby.

Next door to the damaged property a house has been pulled down and the site is being developed for flats, while behind the terrace on the old C&A site building work has been going on for about a year.

Mr King, who is also a Conservative Bournemouth councillor, said: "We had been concerned for a little while."

He said the structural engineer said the tenants could return to their homes yesterday afternoon.

Neighbour Vicki Morrice, who owns the Bondi guesthouse, said that she had been having problems with vibrations from the C&A development.

She said: "They caused such vibrations that a big mirror leapt off the wall.

"My guests are complaining about the noise and about cranes operating outside their windows at 7am and we are going to have to close soon."

Co-owner of the nearby Newark Hotel, Terry White, said that he thought the area was being over developed and that this was putting stress on the older buildings.

A spokesman for Dean & Dyball which is working on the C&A site said: "The problem is nothing to do with us. Residents complained that the piling work was causing vibrations in their houses but we used monitoring equipment to demonstrate that is not the case.

"The reason for the problem is that the house next door was demolished and so the wind was coming through the gap at 70 miles an hour."

Brian Ward from Green Ward Associates, responsible for the site next door, said its work had not contributed to the damage.

He said: "A schedule of condition was prepared before we started work and that patch of brickwork was bulging then. I am not surprised it came down."

  • Strong winds also blew down some hoardings outside a development in Westover Road in Bournemouth. Contractors made them safe.