All the elements for a major fire disaster are in place in this borough
Report of Deputation at the Housing Scrutiny Panel of Haringey Council, 30 July 2024.
Our 3 minute presentation starts at 3 mins 0 secs in this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg6ZIIxNFUI&t=2632s
We said we were shocked to hear that all 80 Haringey Council housing blocks of five storeys and above have Life Critical fire safety defects:
•46 blocks have combustible external wall systems
•80 blocks have defective fire doors and/or compartmentation defects.
Further details of defective Fire risk Assessments were given, along with detail of the test report on combustible external panels.
We explained that Council policy is that Haringey’s combustible window panels should be replaced on the normal timescale of its window replacement programme – with an industry standard of 30 year replacement – and management certainly did not disagree.
We said that with combustible panels, cost-cutting policies, outsourcing, and complacent management, all the elements for a major fire disaster are in place. On this, management and the Cabinet Member had no comment to make.
The Panel meeting had on its agenda a Fire Safety report which made NO mention of Life Critical Fire Safety defects.
Management commented on the deputation, and management and the Cabinet Member (Sarah Williams) responded to questions from Councillors on the Fire Safety Report, without ever once using the word combustible, and without ever once using the words Life Critical Fire Safety defects.
The Scrutiny Panel Chair (Alex Worrell) and the Panel members asked good questions throughout, and the Panel has now written to Cllr Williams asking for full detail of the fire remediation actions carried out by the Council since Grenfell.
So this was a difficult but an ultimately valuable meeting.
Paul Burnham
Secretary
Haringey Defend Council Housing
All the elements for a major fire disaster are in place in this borough
Report of Deputation at the Housing Scrutiny Panel of Haringey Council, 30 July 2024.
Our 3 minute presentation starts at 3 mins 0 secs in this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg6ZIIxNFUI&t=2632s
We said we were shocked to hear that all 80 Haringey Council housing blocks of five storeys and above have Life Critical fire safety defects:
•46 blocks have combustible external wall systems
•80 blocks have defective fire doors and/or compartmentation defects.
Further details of defective Fire risk Assessments were given, along with detail of the test report on combustible external panels.
We explained that Council policy is that Haringey’s combustible window panels should be replaced on the normal timescale of its window replacement programme – with an industry standard of 30 year replacement – and management certainly did not disagree.
We said that with combustible panels, cost-cutting policies, outsourcing, and complacent management, all the elements for a major fire disaster are in place. On this, management and the Cabinet Member had no comment to make.
The Panel meeting had on its agenda a Fire Safety report which made NO mention of Life Critical Fire Safety defects.
Management commented on the deputation, and management and the Cabinet Member (Sarah Williams) responded to questions from Councillors on the Fire Safety Report, without ever once using the word combustible, and without ever once using the words Life Critical Fire Safety defects.
The Scrutiny Panel Chair (Alex Worrell) and the Panel members asked good questions throughout, and the Panel has now written to Cllr Williams asking for full detail of the fire remediation actions carried out by the Council since Grenfell.
So this was a difficult but an ultimately valuable meeting.
Paul Burnham
Secretary
Haringey Defend Council Housing