The son of the butcher linked to the world's worst recorded outbreak of E. coli food poisoning is attempting to reopen the shop.

Martin Barr has applied for a bakery licence to operate at the premises in Caledonia Road, Wishaw, North Lanarkshire.

The licence would allow Mr Barr to sell meat at the shop, but North Lanarkshire Council have said they expect Mr Barr eventually to apply for a butcher's licence as well.

Mr Barr's father John operated the premises in 1996, when the E. coli O157 outbreak began.

Mr Barr's father John owned the shop

A total of 21 people, most of them elderly, died in the outbreak.

It led to demands for better hygiene and food safety standards to reassure consumers.

Martin Barr, who was a partner in his father's business, was not available for comment.

Gordon Cunningham, food safety manager with North Lanarkshire Council, confirmed that Mr Barr now wanted to re-open the shop.

Butcher's licence

He said: "We have already had meetings with the proprietor for the proposal to open a bakery unit at premises in Caledonia Road.

"As part of this proposal an application has been submitted for the relevant statutory approval to sell meat products and this process is under way.

"It is being proposed that the other unit at this site is opened as a butcher's shop. However, there has been no application submitted for a butcher's licence at this stage."

Mr Cunningham said the premises would be expected to meet the council's strict hygiene and food safety requirements and would be routinely inspected by officials.

John Barr's butcher's was closed for three months due to the E. coli outbreak, but it did reopen at the end of February 1997 after remedial work had been carried out.

However, the shop closed in April 1998 when the building began to collapse because of old mine workings.

Several other shops were also affected. The Coal Authority has now carried out extensive ground stabilisation work.