Capital evacuations get under way

Moredun Park residents will be evacuated

An operation to move up to 150 people out of their homes in south Edinburgh because of subsidence fears will start on Sunday.

The residents in the Moredun Park area are being switched to temporary accommodation as a precaution.

The step has been taken after experts discovered similar underground conditions to those which led to the collapse of some homes in nearby Ferniehill last autumn.

More than 30 houses collapsed after the problem came to light at Ferniehill in the Gilmour area in November.

The council called in engineers at Ferniehill

Investigators blamed old quarry workings, which were filled in and reclaimed several decades ago, for the Ferniehill subsidence.

Now consulting engineers ARUP Scotland have told the council they believe ground conditions in Moredun Park are similar to those in Ferniehill Terrace.

The residents in the three blocks of flats, who range from families to pensioners.

Most of the 54 homes are let to council tenants, while the remainder are owner-occupied.

Some of the 150 residents have voiced shock, but others said they had been fearing the worst after what happened at Ferniehill.

Ground conditions

Edinburgh City Council leader Donald Anderson said the first concern had to be public safety.

"Although there has been no ground movement recorded in the Moredun Park area, the council is acting on new information which suggests that ground conditions may be similar to those existing in Ferniehill before the collapse," he said.

He urged residents to help by passing on local knowledge to the investigation team.

And he said the issue of whether houses should have been built so close to the former quarry would be looked into.

"The people of Edinburgh are entitled to know whether decisions taken in the Sixties when the houses were built were reasonable or not," he said.

"It is important that full and accurate facts are established as soon as possible to benefit everyone involved."