A FORMER factory in Willington is being demolished and decontaminated.

The Repton Road site used to be home to Calder Industries, which specialised in recycling aluminium scrap for the automotive industry and made specialist castings.

The company went into administration in March 2004 and the 6.1-acre site was vacated, leaving hard standing areas and seven main buildings totalling 96,000 feet of space.

Most of the buildings are in a poor or dilapidated condition.

Willington Developments is having the buildings demolished and decontamination work carried out.

The company had submitted proposals for a large-scale residential scheme and the land has been put on the market.

Agent Rushton Hickman reports that the state of the site had made residential developers reluctant to take on such a complicated project.

The owners, therefore, decided to clean up the area and have the buildings knocked down to avoid paying empty property rates on premises unfit for occupation.