THEY took six years to put up and they are taking nearly twice as long to pull down.

Glasgow’s Red Road flats will finally be demolished this autumn - a decade after their end was first revealed in 2005 and a year after five of the remaining six blocks were to be dynamited for “entertainment” during the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

Officials – citing safety concerns – are tight-lipped over the exact date of the explosions, despite advanced planning.

But site owner Glasgow Housing Association said, despite the sheer amount of time the demolitions have taken, the project remains on track.

In fact, officials have warned it will take another two years after this autumn’s pulldowns to clear the site for redevelopment.

David Fletcher, the landlord’s director of regeneration, said: “The project to demolish all eight Red Road flats and clear the site was always planned to take until 2017 and we are well on track to complete the project in this timescale.

“We completely understand that, for people living nearby, this project is taking a long time and we would like to thank them for their patience and co-operation.”

But patience has been wearing thin on the Red Road.

Phil Greene, the SNP councillor for the area, said: “They should have been down years ago.

“They could have all come down in a oner about five years ago.

“They are an eyesore and the dust and grit that blows off them is horrific.

“But this is a very big project and it really is going to take a long time to clear up afterwards, which will bring trucks of dirt going through our streets.”

In 2005, detailed plans for the demolitions first emerged, there were suggestions the then eight blocks were too well built to be blown up.

Instead, like some other high rises in the city, they would have to be taken down floor by floor.

However, they were, in the end, scheduled to be blown down.

Some in Glasgow’s City Chambers thought this spectacle could have been incorporated in to the opening ceremony of the 2014 Games.

This was scrapped amid concerns about both safety and poor taste, not least because one block remained occupied at the time.

It was only vacated by an asylum seeker housing provider this February.

The last GHA tenants left in 2012. The first two blocks were blown up in June 2012 and May 2013.

Mr Fletcher stressed the scale of the project.

He said: “The demolition of Red Road, which will pave the way for future regeneration, is a huge and complex project which has involved rehousing more than 1300 people and carrying out very specialised preparation work to the blocks so they can be demolished safely.

“It was initially anticipated the blowdown of the blocks would be done on a phased basis with several separate blowdown operations over a number of years.

“However, we have listened carefully to the community and, as a result, have been very keen to do everything we can to minimise disruption to people.

“The block at 33 Petershill Drive was handed back to us early this year and this has given us the opportunity to respond to people’s feedback by blowing down all six remaining blocks at once.

“The single blowdown in autumn this year will greatly reduce the inconvenience to surrounding residents and businesses while allowing us to meet our original timescale of demolishing and clearing the site by 2017.”