London Fire: Grenfell Tower thread five

[RhythmAndStealth]

RIP

Five victims officially named
At least 79 victims expected, possibly more
Many displaced and struggling

To all those affected and all those helping

Thread four
Thread three
Thread three contains links to threads one and two.

HOW IMAGE LED SALFORD TOWER BLOCK CLADDING CATASTROPHE

Star date: 26th June 2017

IMAGE OBSESSION AND CLADDING UNVEILED

Recently, Salford City Council has been obsessed by the image of the city, desperately trying to move away from the 'Dirty Old Town', to something like Milton Keynes on the Irwell.

Has this obsession with image and wrapping tower blocks in unsafe materials led, in line with other cities, to the current cladding catastrophe? Here the Salford Star documents what's been going on behind the fancy facades...

Full details here...

Cladding being taken down on Thorn Court Cladding being taken down on Spruce Court Cladding being taken down on Whitebeam Court
Cladding being taken down on Whitebeam Court Cladding being taken down on Whitebeam Court City West Eccles blocks visualisation
City West Eccles tower blocks City West Eccles tower blocks LED Lights celebration Pendleton
click image to enlarge

Last year, Rob Ball released his short film, Foundations Documentary, about the regeneration in Salford which showed just how image obsessed Salford City Council actually is with transforming the look of the city; almost above everything else.

During a very short interview, Councillor Derek Antrobus, who has been leading for the Council on Planning forever and a day, managed to mention 'image' three times...

"The Quays started to change the image of Salford so people were no longer concerned about investing in the city" he slathered "I hope that the image of the city will be much better...We've got Media City which has been of immense value in changing the image of Salford from Dirty Old Town to something more about the future..."

That 'something more about the future' is now under the spotlight like never before. A future that looks good to tourists and visitors? A future that sees totally unaffordable apartment towers dominate housing?...

...A future that is looking rosy for Far East investors and developers, while the only residential home for disabled children gets mercilessly closed; and the Council itself has got the begging bowl out to ensure babies can actually be born in the city?

Even the iconic, world famous Dirty Old Town gasworks themselves are to be demolished (see here), along with everything else that has a whiff of the city's history, as developers are determined re-brand Salford as Manchester.

This obsession with image has come home to roost over the last week, when many of the city's tower blocks, done up to be chic architectural 'visual statements', have been declared an unsafe fire risk.

Salford City Council's Building Control applications, which may contain technical details about materials used in cladding these blocks, are all withheld from public view. Links to many planning meetings, where more details may be revealed, have all disappeared as a result of the Council's website makeover...

However the actual applications, decision notices and plans are available if the exact planning reference number is known. Over the last week, the Salford Star has been trawling through these applications, together with press releases from various companies involved in the tower block makeovers. They more than hint at an obsession with 'image' before any safety concerns...

This is particularly true for four of the seven aluminium-clad tower blocks in Eccles, owned by City West Housing Trust (CWHT), which the Government is currently testing for fire safety – Ewood House, Cremer House, Kemball House and Craunton House...

The 2011 Salford Council planning decision for these blocks state, for example, that 'the project' is seeking to "Create a modern, new image for Salford generally and Eccles town centre in particular by making a bold statement at the gateway to the city"

The planning decision adds that City West aims to "create a series of landmark buildings that act as a visible evidence of the investment that CWHT are making in their stock."

Meanwhile, the Design, Access and Sustainability statement on behalf of City West goes completely over the top... "The disposition of colours and materials on each block will be carefully controlled so passing motorists and pedestrians will see a changing and complementary palette as they move closer around and towards the blocks. Careful consideration has been given to longer distant views from the motorway and Regent Street..."

The blocks, as they were, appeared 'tired in appearance'... "If anything" the report states "they are a negative image at a key gateway to Salford and Eccles."

Instead, an ironic 'Lowry palette' was used to colour the blocks, which were a "key design opportunity", with the cladding providing that 'opportunity' to "tackle the drab municipal appearance"...

'Prussian Blue' aluminium rainscreen cladding would face outwards, "signposting the gateway", while the existing roof would be "resurfaced with liquid plastic finish to enhance its durability and appearance"...

Away from Eccles, another Salford 'gateway' features the nine Pendleton Together blocks. Here, the company moaned in its planning statement that Malus, Salix, Beech, Hornbeam, Whitebeam Court, Holm and Plane Court "currently appear grey, unrelenting and oppressive, with a lack of relief or expression in the facade treatment. The intention is to transform their appearance through the introduction of a robust over-cladding system..."

It adds: "The decision to overclad all medium rise blocks with an insulated rainscreen provides an opportunity for a wide variety of cladding finishes and colours which will be exploited to provide variation and identity to the buildings and groups of buildings. The design has been developed to provide colour and interest at key focal points..."

Thorn Court and Spruce Court, however, were going to 'reinvent high rise blocks'. The cladding panels, the report states, "known as 'Chameleon' creates a very dynamic appearance, changing colour as it catches the light. This means that each plane of the building can appear as a different colour shade, depending on the aspect and time of day.

"The interplay of light and shade and changing colour tones, within each tower and
from one tower to the next, will create a mesmerising effect" it adds "These colours have been carefully considered and selected in conjunction with Salford City Council's planning and design advisors and help to create a stronger sense of character and identity for what are large, grey and somewhat oppressive buildings....

"Due to the towers prominence along Broad Street (A6) the choice of cladding treatment is important" it insists "a Chameleon cladding that changes in colour tone across the facade and appears differently in varying light conditions, or when viewed from different positions was therefore selected. This will create a dynamic and exciting aesthetic and become a signpost for the rejuvenation of Pendleton..."

And again, under the title Iconic Local Landmarks the planning statement dribbles "As the buildings sit adjacent to a major highway they are seen by the public when on the move. The cladding panel selected for Thorn and Spruce is designed to modulate within a range of colours depending on the angle of view and the nature of the daylight, to create a dynamic and contemporary appearance..."

The Salford Star discovered this morning that, while official Chameleon Rockpanel cladding was considered for these blocks, it was never actually used. Instead, a product called Alucobond Spectra, which is an Aluminium Composite Material (ACM), with a similar appearance to Chameleon was used.

This is the stuff that is currently being removed from Spruce and Thorn Court, having failed Government fire safety tests. Was this product used because it was cheaper than the official, and generally regarded as more fireproof, Rockpanel Chameleon? This is a question that officers might like to answer.

Meanwhile, after the ACM panelling has now been removed from the sides of the blocks, huge holes are evident (see photos) by the windows of flats which, if a fire breaks out via the cladding, would push deadly smoke straight into tenants' rooms.

These vents are crucial to the working of the NIBE air pump system which residents have been complaining about since they were installed...They've been complaining, not only about the extortionate cost of the so-called 'affordable' heating system* but also about the gaping holes in their flats.

In the 2015 print issue of Salford Star one resident from Whitebeam Court complained: "On my living room wall there's a box that you could keep two pigeons in. It's an 18 inch vent and if you look down it you can see outside...You can also feel the draught coming through the drawers and cupboards yet the flat is supposed to be sealed. I've complained to Salford Council and signed every petition but there's been no response at all..."

These complaints were compounded with loads of other horrifying complaints about the refurbishment work on the blocks (see here and see here) but working class voices were generally ignored.

However, the image from the outside was super. Last December, Pendleton Together celebrated the switch-on of the LED lights on the tower block roofs, with Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett and assorted councillors, officers and tenants...

"...This regeneration work has made a real difference to where we live" said Dennett, with no irony intended

salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=2826

This has been the hottest period of the year but the row over heating Pendleton's high rises is almost at boiling point. In May, the Salford Star print issue reported on the NIBE F370 Exhaust Air Heat Pump which was installed in residents' flats as part of the huge Pendleton Together PFI refurbishment of blocks including Spruce Court, Hornbeam Court and Whitebeam Court.

Pendleton Together told residents that the NIBE system "massively reduces carbon and heating bills" but most of those who had the NIBE installed saw their electricity bills mushroom during the winter months.

In Spruce Court, Sara Thomson pre-NIBE was spending £10 a fortnight on energy bills. Post-NIBE she was spending between £20 and £50 a fortnight... "I've got to ask family and friends for food and to help with money" she said "I don't know who to turn to..."

In Hornbeam Court, Lee Ward showed the Salford Star his itemised electricity statement showing £545 for less than three months use on his meter .. "I've fallen behind with my rent now...I'm getting threatening letters" he said "How am I going to pay? It's ridiculous..."

In Whitebeam Court, Mark Sillis should have been paying £720 a year on energy bills. He actually spent £736 in the first seven months... "I've had to cut back on everything; shopping...baths...I can't have a social life" he explained "I think this is about making money and making Salford look better than it used to be. I don't think they care about people. We're just numbers to them...just guinea pigs...just muck on the floor basically."

One statement that kind of backs up this attitude was made inadvertently by Mike Taylor, Head of Industrial Partnerships at the University of Salford, a partner with Pendleton Together in the £650million scheme to redevelop Pendleton. Taylor was quoted on the Platform website... "Obviously it's on our doorstep. The way we talk about the programme internally is that it's a `living laboratory'"

Residents certainly don't want to be `lab rats' for a PFI, or Private Finance Initiative, project that's being bought and sold on the world's money markets, to the tune of £82.6million worth of bonds.*

Following horrendous stories during the actual refurbishment of the blocks (see previous Salford Star articles – click here and click here and click here) they set up the independent Whitebeam Community Action Group and it later carried out its own NIBE survey of 75 tenants they could contact in Whitebeam and Spruce Court. They asked – Are you happy with the NIBE? Every single resident, apart from four, said No'. Can you afford to use it? Every single resident, apart from four, said No'. Would you like it removed? Every single resident, apart from three, said `Yes'.

Over the winter, Pendleton Together, under siege from residents' complaints, barred all discussion about the NIBE at official monthly block meetings and posters giving out information from the Action Group were ripped down. It didn't stop the Group from holding two huge unofficial meetings at St Paul's Church on the Broadwalk, with people from all blocks coming together to share their experiences and anger.

Jamie, who runs the Action Group, put in an official complaint about the NIBE and was horrified to receive an email from Chris Brown, Pendleton Together Contract Manager...

"We are not able to offer you an alternative heating system to the NIBE" it stated "We feel that the electric based systems the NIBE is economic if specified, fitted and used correctly...Should you wish to discuss how alternative accommodation can be accessed through the Council's Choice Based Lettings System we can provide you with more information..."

In other words, `If you don't like the NIBE system, get out!' This made Jamie even more determined to get the thing ripped out and residents compensated.

"I've been researching the NIBE for about seven months, from the first day they brought it in and started punching big six inch round holes in the outside walls" he said "Basically the whole flat was re-done for the NIBE. We are now only caretakers for the great NIBE. We must feed it every day...you don't control it, you can't control it...it has to stay on 24 hours a day...and it controls you. You get up in the middle of the night, and it's freezing cold because the outside wind temperature is -15, but the ambient temperature is +5. So you're sitting on £6,000 worth of boiler and you've got to go and buy electric fires because your boiler doesn't feel like working. During the summer you bake, during the winter you freeze.

"I've relayed all the horror stories to Pendleton Together and all they have done is say `If you don't like your NIBE find somewhere else to live'" he added "And Salford Council is standing as far away as possible – you've heard of arms length! They would sell us tomorrow for a bag of poo."

Now that it's summer, the NIBE protests have gone quiet as the system appears to work ok until the temperature drops below twelve degrees. But the residents, determined not to suffer another winter of what they call the NIBE `money furnace', are trying to get some answers.

Sara, the Spruce Court tenant, put in an official complaint demanding compensation... "Due to the heat or eat situation and fuel poverty caused by the NIBE heating system, authorized to be installed by SCC [Salford City Council], I and many others, have been placed in, contrary to SCC obligation under the Energy Conservation Act 2000, fuel poverty. I therefore have been unable eat some times because of the unreasonable £100+ increase in my electricity costs.

"In an effort to reduce my electricity costs I asked PT [Pendleton Together] for my EPC [Energy Performance Certificate] certificate (which by law I should have) but to date I still await any response" she added "PT claim we would have bills of £657 per year. We are receiving £680 bills for three months. We have tried to resolve this unreasoning situation when in September 2014 my representative contacted the PT Housing Manager regarding this issue, but no response was received again.

"During the 11 months of a 35 day contract of demolition that took place in my flat, it was unfit and unsafe for habitation, a fact already established" she explained "With no response or cooperation from PT/SCC we consider that far from requesting me to pay rent, SCC, my Landlord, should now offer compensation to all the many affected tenants. I am not alone with this NIBE problem, there are names and signatures of over 144 other tenants who are also in Fuel Poverty because of decisions made by SCC regarding the NIBE installation."

No response has been received. Indeed, the Salford Star has seen numerous complaints emails to Pendleton Together, Salford City Council, Salford councillors and new MP Rebecca Long Bailey, none of which has received a response. Even though Salford City Council is pouring £43.6million into the project.*

Before the Salford Star ran the article in the print issue, Pendleton Together, local councillors John Warmisham and Paul Dennett, and Assistant Mayor for Housing, Gena Merrett, were all contacted for responses. Paul Dennett never replied. John Warmisham blamed the `purdah' period before the election for not issuing a statement (and hasn't replied since). Pendleton Together refused to comment. And Gena Merret wrote that she would ensure a Salford Council officer would respond. To date, the Salford Star, just like the residents, has not received a word from anyone.

It's a very different attitude from Coventry where, two years ago, Labour councillor Ed Ruane and Coventry North West Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson were instrumental in getting NIBEs taken out of homes and tenants compensated.

"Residents were giving me monthly bills for as much as £500, it was ridiculous" he recalled "In the lead up the housing association was just saying `You're not using the boiler properly, you keep switching it off and on etc', but that wasn't the case. The NIBE system is a Scandinavian design and was based on the fact that there's always a central source of heat like an open fireplace; well that's not the case with UK households and it clearly wasn't piloted properly

"If you were to ask other housing associations would they purchase the NIBE system now I think you'd get a lot of answers saying `No', which gives you an indication that it was wrong for these people when they had it installed" he adds "It hasn't worked so you've got to take action on this straight away. Why should the tenant have to forfeit the mistake, it's just totally wrong. Inadvertently the housing association is forcing the most vulnerable people that it's designed to protect into fuel poverty."

Councillor Ruane was shocked when he heard that Labour councillors were not standing up for their residents..."I don't understand why the councillors don't just get behind this" he said.

Indeed, the silence from all concerned is deafening. Meanwhile, residents are bracing themselves for when the temperature drops to below twelve degrees and their meters start screaming to be fed.

Helena, the complaint about the cost of heating are valid and well-made.
The other points are just general moaning and complaining by people who obviously have massive chips on their shoulder about being ,'working class' (their words, not mine.
Stick to the salient points (like heating costs) and the tenants have a point. Endless rambling and seeing injustice at every turn and you've lost me, I'm afraid.
But you don't want my opinion, do you?

cathf a tenant had a noxious substance sprayed in his face by a workman and they didnt even offer to take him to hospital. And you call that moaning. And you say its because they have chips on their shoulders for being working class?! A PP was right You show a complete lack of empathy.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-minister-admits-grenfell-tower-10693972

"The Tories have been accused of "watering down" their pledge to Grenfell Tower victims after a minister admitted not all of them will be rehoused within three weeks.

Theresa May made the vow in the days after the blaze that killed 79 people in the west London tower block.

She said last week: "I have set the commitment that people will be rehoused within three weeks."

But Communities Secretary Sajid Javid clarified victims would only be "offered" homes within three weeks"

I am going to read that article now - I didn't see it first time ( I am on my phone)

Does anyone else think with the tower block being evacuated there is something a bit fishy going on to try and get more people out of the area and out of social housing?

The council can then say there isn't enough social housing and force people into private rented.
A few people from Grenfell had said they were being pressurised into accepting private rented.
It just seems odd that only one tower block has been evacuated when there is 90 others

How does one have an obvious chip on ones shoulder for being working class? Should non mc people stfu about being treated poorly because they have less money and social capital? Considering this bastion of mc that mumsnet is, is chock full of people moaning about wedding invitations and children's parties, a couple of horrifying stories about how tenants are treated in social housing is hardly taking up too much space.

Perhaps a thread about Grenfell tower is not the place for a 'quit moaning and get a job you sick pensioner' kind of attitude

Well clearly that article demonstrates that man - if you cut through the emotive drivel - has not been treated well. Clearly.
However, I would ask the question why he didn't ask for an ambulance himself rather being a 'victim' of the office workers attending to him.
However, all that article shows is it on that day, H&S was not being adhered to. This is wrong, but it happens every day, all over the country.
It does not prove that the world is out to get HA tenants, sorry.

Handbag, normally I would agree, but this thread has moved on from being specifically about Grenfell and into a general rant about how hard-done-by every tenant is, has it not?

cathf what paper do you work for? i remember you mentioning on another thread that you have interviewed social housing tenants for the local paper you write for about disrepair issues and safety and that most times you have found it to be their fault. No one is saying the world is out to get social housing tenants but they are treated differently due to class. There is a tall black burnt out building on Londons skyline which is testament to this.

He did take himself to hospital but the companys attitude was appalling.

And i think that other posters on this thread should be made aware that just prior to the election you started a thread about how some left wingers are NASTY. And you put the word nasty in capitals not me. But apparently its not nasty to minimize and downplay HA tenants being belittled bullied and the case in that article physically injured through negligance.

Are you trying to be to Grenfell what Kelvin McKenzie was to Hillsborough because it looks that way to me.

Cathf the attitudes towards HA tenants contributed to what happened,

Do you really think people in a plush high rise in Holland Park would have been treated the same way.

It is TOTALLY connected.

DH made a salient point...............he was just on the phone renewing our contents insurance and they put him on hold................he turned to me and said "oh just had a thought......those in tower blocks will probably have to pay out more on their insurance now.

the cladding is coming off most of them but some areas are taking a bit longer.

Having no natural light in your residence for months is not moaning or having a chip on your shoulder!

A pensioner being expected to live without a cooker or hot water is unacceptable whatever class you are!

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry...........Lessons from Hillsborough.

By Professor Phil Scraton.

qpol.qub.ac.uk/grenfell-tower-inquiry/

You do like a bit of drama Helena.
Why do you have to refer everyone to a thread I started weeks ago? You have done that a couple of times now and I don't understand what you are trying to prove or what point you are making by doing it?
I don't work for a paper now - I haven't been a journalist for 10 years, but when I did, I worked for the local press, not national.
Tenants' gripes were the bread and butter of local news papers back then, and they amazed me even as an 18-year-old trainee.
The man injured by the spray is a story, the people facing hikes to their heating costs is a story. But as soon as words such an belittling and bullying start being bandied around, I am afraid I lose interest.
I think you are your DH need to widen your horizons instead of spending all day reflecting on how marginalised you are.

This link might work better.......... The Grenfell Inquiry ...........learning from Hillsborough.

theconversation.com/the-grenfell-tower-inquiry-learning-from-hillsborough-79505

cathf you have been deliberately popping back and forth on these threads to be a GF.

This thread is discussing Grenfell and the attitudes towards tenants that led to the tragedy.

How you can look at the faces of those who died one of which was a 5 year old boy who died of fire fumes, and post the hateful drivel that you do on here is beyond me.

Sorry Helena, this is not your thread. You are the one who has turned it into a personal rant about your pet subject, with endless links to websites to prove your point.
And when someone dares to question your rhetoric, you fall back on the 'how could you' argument.
Not a GF but someone who does not always agree with you.

Oh just ignore her, she's just trying to get a rise out of you, Helena.

Helena - in the nicest way possible, don't engage with cathf.

You are doing a fab job keeping the thread alive with an extremely important issue.

Your passion is not drama.

Keep it up. We must fight for those who lost their lives so unnecessarily. And in turn address the many attitudes and class prejudices that sadly exist in our first world country.

Keep your energies for positive. Don't waste time on the negative posters

xxx

gluteous Saucery

I never really took much notice of stuff about HAs in the past, beyond thinking how awful some of them were. This, and you, Helena, have opened my eyes to the misery they subject tenants to with little or no recourse. For that I thank you but I wish I didn't have to, if that makes sense. X