A HOMEOWNER barred from entering his house since the Glasgow School of Art fire has accused Glasgow City Council of treating him and his neighbours as "the enemy".
Adrian Nairn is one of a number of people who have been unable to access their properties for six weeks after an exclusion zone was put in place around the ruins of the Mackintosh building.
He said that that the local authority was behaving like a "totalitarian regime"as it continues to refuse to allow those displaced by the fire back into their homes.
A number of people affected by the cordon around the Art School held a demonstration at the weekend calling for them to be allowed into their properties in a controlled manner to retrieve possessions.
Glasgow City Council maintains it is illegal for them to enter the site, and said that police would arrest those who do.
In a letter to The Herald, Mr Nairn said: "I lost my objectivity on Sunday 22 July when Glasgow City Council prevented me from exercising my legitimate and understandable right to enter my home in Garnethill - the home the council ‘evacuated’ me from six weeks ago, following the fire at the Glasgow School of Art.
"I was yards from my home, on the wrong side of a security fence, staring at a group of demolition workers who were standing outside my front door. Apparently, it was perfectly safe for them to be inside the exclusion zone but not for me.
"It is hard to be objective when the council’s response to our (the Garnethill Displaced Residents’ Group) legitimate and understandable request to be allowed into our homes is to threaten to have us arrested and to beef up the security around our properties. That’s the kind of response you expect from a totalitarian regime not a local authority."
He added: "We are being treated like the enemy. I challenge Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, to leave her office tonight wearing just the clothes she is standing up in, and taking just the possessions she has on her, and see if she can remain objective without setting foot in her home for six weeks or in fact for the foreseeable future."
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said that the building posed a risk to public safety and that it was local authority's statutory duty to prevent anyone from being injured on the site.
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