EMERGENCY services have closed a Barrow town centre street after part of a building collapsed. 

Part of High Street, parallel to Abbey Road, has been closed near to the rear of the Furness Railway.

The Mail's reporter Charlie Fox, who is at the scene, said part of the first floor of a building next to the Wetherspoons pub appears to be unsafe and has collapsed onto the road. 

The building, which housed the registry office before it was relocated to the Nan Tait building, has been empty for a number of years and its condition has led to safety concerns. 

The last planning application concerning the building dates back to 2009 when plans to convert the premises into 13 flats were submitted. 

Documents from the 2009 application state: "Attempts to sell the building at auction have failed, as have efforts to let the building as offices.  As such, the applicant proposes to convert the building to residential accommodation for private rental or sale."

Despite Barrow Borough Council's approval of the plans the development did not go ahead and the building has fallen into a state of disrepair since. 

In 2011 police discovered one of Barrow's biggest ever cannabis farms at the building when drugs squad officers found around 2,000 dead plants inside the premises. 

Bags of soil, fertilizer, lamps and the plants were discovered.

Detective Inspector Mike Brown said in 2011 that the exact value of the plants found was about £500,000 but the business could have been a £1m-plus operation.

He said: "This is a dedicated team of people that have done this.

"It is very well organised and this is a very lucrative commercial venture that they have taken up."

He said the find was "unusual". He added: "I have been to a number in Barrow, but none as big or as organised as this. This is the biggest cannabis factory we have had in the Furness area."

The premises was sold for £110,000 in January 2019 to a Barrow-based limited company.