A once-thriving factory which helped power a town’s engineering legacy is set to be torn down.

The Elektron building on Woodland Trading Estate, formerly home to Sifam, was a major employer in Torquay, producing electrical instruments and fibre-optic tech in the 1980s.

It shut in 2007 after Sifam was bought by Elektron Instruments and the building became a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour, with smashed windows boarded up and the site falling into disrepair.

Now, drinks wholesaler Tolchards, which bought the site last year, wants it gone and a demolition application for the three-storey concrete building has been submitted to Torbay Council.