INVERCLYDE Council has been given seven days to hand over previously undisclosed documents concerning its controversial plans to flatten Clune Park.

The authority will reveal the contents of two fresh structural reports it has commissioned amid a storm of protest and hundreds of legal challenges to demoliton orders.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton ruled that copies of both documents be submitted next week to lawyers acting for the homeowners and landlords of the private Port housing estate.

More than 260 individual appeals have been lodged against the council’s plans ahead of a huge legal battle which is set to take place at Greenock Sheriff Court next year.

Municipal Buildings bosses have commissioned three extra reports to support their position that the whole of Clune Park is beyond repair and must be bulldozed.

The surveys were ordered after an original report by Greenock-based property specialists ATK was challenged by experts hired by landlords and owner-occupiers.

One of the new documents — an updated report by ATK — and a second by a separate firm have been held by the council while it awaits the results of the third additional structural assessment.

But Sheriff Derek Hamilton has given the council a week to release them in order to allow property owners to fully prepare their case. The timescale was set following a disclosure offer from advocate Jonathan Barne QC, representing the council.

Sheriff Hamilton asked how demolition orders could be issued for all 42 blocks of flats at Clune Park when not every one had been inspected individually.

According to the council, structural defects are common to all of the properties to varying degrees.

The sheriff stated that repairs may be possible at blocks where damage is not excessive and there would be no need to demolish these.

Advocate Mr Barne QC said that particular ruling would theoretically be open to be made after evidence has been heard.

All of the 260-plus cases lodged are currently scheduled to proceed after lawyers for both sides failed to reach agreement on which buildings should go forward as ‘test cases’.

The figure will eventually be whittled down, with Sheriff Hamilton deciding on which cases go forward.

Local authority bosses want to bulldoze Clune Park as part of a proposed £2.6 million regeneration project and move residents elsewhere.

But property owners, a number of whom have lived in Clune Park for decades, say they can prove that buildings can be repaired. The council has been given until 3 December to lodge ‘answers’ with the court regarding all of the currently active cases.

Timescales have also been set for property owners to lodge submissions regarding the possible payment of deposits prior to evidential hearings.

Both sides must lodge any expert reports they intend to rely on during the proceedings by 11 February — with the case due to call again on 19 February.