Power station to be demolished three years after worker deaths

Demolition work is to begin on the remains of a coal-fired power station where four workers were killed when it collapsed several years ago.

German owner RWE said cooling towers at the disused Didcot plant in Oxfordshire will be taken down on Sunday, with the chimney to be demolished in the autumn.

Christopher Huxtable, 33, from Swansea, South Wales, Kenneth Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, both from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and Michael Collings, 53, from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Teesside, died after the partial collapse of the boiler house at the Didcot A plant in February 2016.

Thames Valley Police and the Health and Safety Executive had launched a joint investigation to consider corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety offences.

Contracting firm Brown and Mason will carry out Sunday’s demolition.

Didcot A ceased operation in 2013 after running for 43 years.

Three of its towers were demolished in 2014.