SHOPS are picking up the pieces after being heavily damaged when a police car crashed into them two weeks ago.
Ideal Bathrooms & Tiles, an accountancy firm in the premises of a former pharmacy and a partially renovated section of Jamil Mini-Market, on Keighley Road in Frizinghall, all sustained heavy damage when two police cars were involved in a crash on February 27.
At the time, police said the two vehicles involved in the crash were "en route to support a pursuit of a vehicle stolen in a burglary".
Councillor Rizwana Jamil, whose family owns Jamil Mini-Market, spoke to the Telegraph & Argus in the aftermath of the smash and expressed her shock about the incident and its impact.
Two families living in the flats above the shops had to be evacuated.
"Our mini-market had to close for two days while the Council came in to do work to make the building safe," said Cllr Jamil.
"However, we were renovating the building next door to expand our shop but that was one of three shopfronts that were damaged extensively.
"We've employed the service of a loss adjustor so we're just waiting to hear how much it's going to cost.
"The flat immediately above is unliveable as the whole of the front of the property was ripped out. That was their living room. Some of their possessions were damaged too.
"The family in the flat above that one were allowed to move back after a few days as that flat had suffered very minimal damage.
"After the Council brought in scaffolding and done work to help hold the building together and make it safe, they boarded up the three shopfronts. They also took away the debris."
She said that will all remain until they allowed are to go in and do renovation work.
"They've not done an extensive survey yet, so we have no idea about timescales.
"The sad thing is that part of our shop was practically fully renovated. It was only four to six weeks away from opening.
"It's hard that we had done all that renovation and then it was destroyed."
Cllr Jamil said West Yorkshire Police have been in touch for insurance purposes, but she added they have not been in contact in regards to well-being checks or anything further about an investigation.
"I don't think we'll ever get to know why it happened," she said.
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