PART of a town centre pavement in Wellington has been cordoned off because of the danger of upstairs windows falling out of a derelict former shop.

The empty EJ Teare’s newsagents in South Street has been a source of complaints from Wellington councillors concerned about its impact on the town centre conservation area since its closure six years ago.

Somerset Council finally started legal proceedings in May to require the owner to carry out repairs and improvements.

But the deadline passed in August without any work seemingly undertaken and the unitary council saying it was taking legal action but refusing to say what it was doing or how long it would take.

Now, first floor sash window glazing in the building has been reported as a danger to passing pedestrians.

The incident comes ahead of crowds of people who are expected to be in the town centre for Wellington Carnival on Saturday (September 30).

In March, a similar situation arose in a nearby part of the town centre when a storm left a window in danger of collapsing into Cornhill.

County building control officers moved quickly to have repairs carried out and Cornhill was reopened within days.

Town Cllr Zoe Barr, who has been campaigning for more action to protect the conservation area, said: “I understand it is a challenging issue to get work done on Teare’s but the council has had several years already and it seems they basically have ignored it because this is Wellington and not Taunton.

“We have a beautiful and thriving market town here in Wellington which is on the up, in large part thanks to the hard work the town council is doing.

“But we do need the support of the unitary council because they have more powers and more money than we do.”