Councillor tells RBH it’s time for someone to ‘take responsibility and resign’ over fire safety issues at College Bank

A councillor is calling for someone to ‘take responsibility and resign’ after fire safety issues were discovered at Rochdale’s College Bank tower blocks.

Earlier this month Rochdale Boroughwide Housing found there was a problem with the ‘compartmentation’ of the flats, known locally as the Seven Sisters.

This meant there was an increased risk that fire could spread between homes on the same floor, rather than being contained as it should be.

RBH says the problem related to panels which had been installed in 1998 – 14 years before it took control of the council’s social housing stock.

Fire risk assessments are carried out at the College Bank flats every year.

But RBH says the number of properties now left empty due to its plans to demolish four of the blocks meant it could carry out more ‘intrusive’ work this time around – hence the issue being discovered.

In the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster RBH said it had undertaken ‘a full and rigorous fire risk assessment on each block at College Bank’ and taken appropriate action.

 

 

Now Councillor Danny Meredith is calling for someone to fall on their sword over the ‘serious failing’.

The scrutiny committee chair has praised RBH for its work supporting communities through the coronavirus crisis.

But he says it is not good enough for the landlord to ‘shirk responsibility’ on the grounds the panels were installed before the flats were transferred from the council.

“If this is coming out now it’s a failure of them taking responsibility for those flats way back in 2010, when there were structural surveys done on those flats,” he said.

“The problem I see is that for years this has been neglected, cyclical maintenance has not been done properly.

“If something this big has been missed by RBH, someone along the line needs to take responsibility for it, because this is a complete disregard of people’s safety.”

He added: “Someone senior should be resigning for the failings of RBH. It’s a serious situation that could cost people’s lives, especially given what happened at Grenfell.

“Those panels do need replacing, either as cyclical maintenance or as soon as possible for the safety of the residents in those flats.”

However, RBH says that, far from being negligent, it was acting in the spirit of the Hackitt Report – which was ordered post-Grenfell – rather than waiting for new laws to come into force.

Since discovering the defective panels, RBH has employed a ‘waking watch’ as a safeguarding measure and also updated its fire safety advice to residents.
 

Read more: Investigation reveals fire risk at landmark ‘Seven Sisters’ flats in RochdalePublished: 08 September 2020

A spokesman for RBH said: “We acted decisively as soon as we became aware of the issue.

“We have implemented additional measures to keep residents safe, and we have commissioned formal reports and advice from independent and accredited experts so that we can provide a long-term solution.

“Our focus has been, and continues to be, on our residents and their safety.”

The landlord also said it would be sending an update, but not a representative, to a meeting of the council’s communities, regeneration overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday.

A spokesman added: “As we are currently taking legal advice relating to the warranties made at the point of transfer of these blocks to RBH, it would not be appropriate to attend a council meeting at this point.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter