WORK is underway to demolish two tower blocks in Dunmurry under plans approved seven years ago.
Workers began demolishing Coolmoyne House and Rathmoyne House in the Seymour Hill area on Tuesday.
It comes after years of set-backs caused by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) dealing with the acquisition of private dwellings in the buildings, legal wrangling over a telecoms mast on one of the roofs and concerns over the safe removal of asbestos.
In 2019, the NIHE approved its £308m Tower Block Action Plan to demolish its 33 tower blocks.
Only one until this week has been taken down- Newtownabbey’s Monkscoole House in 2023.
In the most recent update from the NIHE, the two Dunmurry towers were among 15 in Phase 1 of the plan, and of those, four others were supposed to have been demolished by this summer.
Two others in the Belvoir area of South Belfast, Breda and Belvoir House, are scheduled for demolition later this year.
