THE fronts of a charity shop and a community centre in Skipton are receiving emergency work to prevent them from buckling.

Concrete lintels above the front windows of the SCAD shop and the Petyt Grove Community Centre, on Newmarket Street, are showing signs of stress and the windows beneath are bulging outwards as a result.

The problem at SCAD (Skipton and Craven Association for the Disabled) is likely to be repeated along its neighbouring row of shops and Craven District Council has advised at least one of them to look into the weakness.

Kathleen Smith, who works at the SCAD charity shop, said she and her sister, Ann Dufton, were alarmed to see how their front window was bulging.

She said: "A strong wind had blown through and slammed the front door shut and we looked up to see the window bending out. It looked quite dangerous."

SCAD has had a temporary wooden support installed under the window to prevent the lintel from collapsing.

But a neighbouring fish and chip shop and a hairdressers were all built as part of the same block and may be suffering from the same concrete cracking problem.

David Allison, spokesman for the council's housing department, said: "Improvements are being made to the SCAD. The top part of the window frame in the SCAD shop was bowing a little bit so we did some temporary work to secure it but we are having to put some more substantial supports in to repair them.

"The shops have been up quite a few years but we have to make sure they are good for the future. We only own part of the block now.

"Most of it has been bought by private businesses and we have advised one of them to look at their lintels as a precaution.

"It's the same thing with the community centre."

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