THE fire-damaged building in Hereford's High Town could be redeveloped soon as the owners have announced their intention to sell up.

The building has been left undeveloped since October 2010 after a huge fire started in the Card Factory shop and spread to River Island and Phones4U next door.

The eyesore has caused concern among shoppers and councillors who wanted to see the grade two listed buildings redeveloped as soon as possible.

And now there appears to have been a breakthrough as Herefordshire Council said they met with the owners last Thursday, who have said they will facilitate a sale by applying for new planning permission.

The council said Hereford-based architect Hook Mason Ltd has been instructed to seek pre-application advice from the council’s planning service to provide a more marketable development with the aim of selling the property and bringing the buildings back into use as soon as possible.

It is coming up to five years on October 21 since the blaze started in the city centre.

Planning permission was granted after the fire but a long-running wrangle over insurance delayed this.

Then in 2013, the council announced they expected the owners of the property to start rebuilding the property, but this was also delayed and no work started.

In December last year Herefordshire Council secured an enforcement notice on site owners Omaha Nominees (A) Ltd and Omaha Nominees (B) Ltd, ordering them to stabilise the facade and erect hoardings across the full width of the frontage.

It was confirmed in February that Omaha Properties Ltd went into administration.

A mural was put up around the scaffolding earlier this year, depicting the county soldiers who fought during the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War.