Corkman Irish Pub demolition developers Stefce Kutlesovski and Raman Shaqiri sorry

HERITAGE consultants will be engaged in the next few weeks to begin rebuilding the Corkman Irish Pub.

HERITAGE consultants will be engaged in the next few weeks to begin rebuilding the Corkman Irish Pub.

Developers Stefce Kutlesovski and his partner Raman Shaqiri faced widespread condemnation after the illegal demolition of the 159-year-old Carlton pub last month.

Will Fowles, whose specialist government relations and communications firm Piper Communications is advising the pair, said plans to rebuild the pub were gathering pace.

“My clients have said everything they wish to say, they made a mistake, they are sorry, and they are going to make it right,” Mr Fowles said.

“Heritage consultants will be engaged in the next few weeks to commence the process of rebuilding.”

Developer Stefce Kutlesovski outside his home. Picture: Hamish Blair

Meanwhile, a contaminated building site used to store asbestos from the building has been declared safe.

While most of the pub debris remains under cover at the Carlton site, some building rubble — which included asbestos — was dumped on another site the developers own in Furlong Rd, Cairnlea.

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Environment Protection Authority executive director of regional services Damian Wells said the company responsible for the site conducted unannounced works on Friday to remove contaminated sheeting under the supervision and monitoring of asbestos risk specialists.

“EPA and WorkSafe attended the site while works were occurring and were satisfied that best practice was being followed, including active wetting down of the site to suppress dust, protective equipment for workers, and monitoring on the boundary of the site,” he said.

The Corkman Irish Pub was reduced to rubble.

A spokesman for the developers said “they are going to make it right.” Picture: David Crosling

“No airborne asbestos was detected through the air monitoring undertaken while works were completed to remove the asbestos.”

Late Friday, EPA received an asbestos clearance letter for the site from the solicitor representing the site owner. Mr Wells said a covering was no longer required at the Cairnlea site because the asbestos risk was no longer present.

“The remaining waste piles have been classified as general building waste by the asbestos specialist and in the coming week EPA will issue a notice requiring the remaining dumped material to be removed from the Cairnlea site,” he said.

“The timing of this will be resolved with the site owner in the coming days.”

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