FEARS have been raised that the deteriorating state of a Grade II-listed building in the centre of Warminster could lead to serious injury and even death.

Police were recently called out twice to Number 3 High Street after reports of large amounts of rubble and masonry falling from the building.

Councillors and residents are now calling on the owners of the building, Denstar, to take action.

David Pollard, chairman of the Feoffees and member of St Lawrence’s Church, next door to the building, for more than 30 years, said: “Someone is going to get killed.

"The way that the vandal was throwing stuff, if that hit anyone it would have killed them.

“That’s the way it is with derelict buildings though and this may continue, you can’t say it won’t because it probably will.

“They (the developers) are not interested in the state of the building, it’s as simple as that. There was also some debris that came off before Christmas in the stormy weather.”

The first incident took place on January 3, at 8.30am, after a fire crew from Warminster was called out to reports that masonry had fallen from the roof.

After an inspection the police were called as it appeared lead may have been taken. Then on Saturday (jan 9) at 7.25pm police received reports someone was on the roof and debris was seen on the path.

Robert Hobson, director of Asset Management and Real Estate Solutions at agents Lee Baron, said: “We have had people go out repairing the issues and I believe that was done yesterday [Tuesday, January 12] and we are monitoring the situation.

“I think some decisions are going to be made [by the owners] but at the moment I don’t know which way they will go.

“It’s constantly being monitored and I think you might find it’s more to do with the weather to cause the slates coming off, but we are keeping a watchful eye.”

Residents were told last year that there was nothing Wiltshire Council could do about the scaffolding – which has become an eyesore in the town since being put up in 2011 – despite a petition asking for its removal receiving more than 500 signatures.

Warminster Mayor Sue Fraser said: “It’s becoming a danger, stuff is either falling off or it’s being thrown off.

“It’s a real danger to the public.

“It has been reported to the agents and they should be doing something about it.

“They should pull their finger out and they should come down and inspect it.

“The licence for the scaffolding as far as I know runs out in February and we need to put more pressure on them [the developers].”

Cllr Andrew Davies said: “Following this latest act of vandalism on the building I’m concerned that more damage will be done to its structure and I hope that the owners will attend to it sooner rather than later.”