Remains of Didcot power station to be demolished this weekend

DEMOLITION work to bring down the remains of a collapsed power station where two Rotherham men have been lost for almost five months will finally take place this weekend.

The bodies of Ken Cresswell (57) and colleague John Shaw (61) have been missing in the rubble of Didcot power station since it collapsed on February 23.

Now, almost five months on, the site’s owners RWE nPower has written to people who live close to the site to say the demolition will take place on Sunday, July 17, between 5.30am and 7.30am.

Grandfather-of-two Ken, from Clifton, and Mr Shaw, from Kimberworth, and their colleague Christopher Huxtable (34), from Wales, have been buried under the 20,000 tonnes of rubble for four months.

But rescue work was halted for the second time on May 16 when contractors reached a 50-metre exclusion zone around the remaining part of the building as the company said it was too dangerous.

RWE nPower used remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to plant explosive charges on the building, which will be used to bring the building down.