Residents nearby to the Hartford Mill demolition site have been given an update on plans to evacuate homes near to the site.

The mill’s chimney was set to be demolished with explosives on April 2 by UK Green Waste & Remediation Ltd but had been postponed to April 30 to avoid conflicting with Ramadan.

Now, the demolition has been postponed again, after a machine became available that meant the explosion, and resulting evacuation, could be cancelled.

Eddie Bentham, a health and safety manager at the demolition site, said: “It was always our preferred choice to take down with a machine.

“The machines became available towards the back end of May. To pin these machines down is really hard work.

“We’ve still got a few things to iron out with the planning department. They are happier that it is coming down with machines rather than explosives.”

The change means residents will not need to evacuate their homes while the demolition takes place, with May 22 given as a tentative date for the works to take place.

The beleaguered mill was subject to calls for demolition following arson attacks and anti-social behaviour.

Plans to demolish the mill were approved in 2019.

The building had been Grade II listed since March 1993, but Government greenlit the demolition months later to make way for residential development.

Demolition works began in 2020, and was expected to take six months, but works were halted due to Covid restrictions.

Works resumed in summer 2021, but Lancashire-based TFM Demolition Ltd was issued a prohibition notice by authorities after evidence emerged that the site welfare cabin was being used as living quarters by a security guard.

Evidence of alcohol use and smoking was also uncovered in the site’s welfare unit, leading to the security guard being let go.

The mill, which was opened in 1907, produced cotton until the 1950s.

However, it had been empty since 1991 after Littlewoods, which used the building as a mail order depot, vacated the site.

The condition of the site rapidly deteriorated and prior to demolition, the mill became an anti-social behaviour hotspot, covered in graffiti and surrounded by rubbish.