Issue - meetings

To consider any requests received in accordance with Standing Orders.

Cllr Hakata arrived(6.35pm)

The Chair outlined that a deputation had been received in accordance with Committee Standing Orders in relation to item 11, Housing Annual Compliance Statement. Mr Paul Burnham who attended the meeting with Florence Allaway had put this forward.

As with past usual practice, the Cabinet agreed to vary the agenda to take item 11 after item 8 and before item 9.

Mr Paul Burnham addressed the Cabinet meeting, referring to item 11, Housing Annual Compliance Statement and raising concern about some of the fire risk assessment performance and remedial actions contained in the report.

The deputation asserted that the fire risk assessment performance was poor and referenced that 37%of follow up actions were not being logged on the Council system.

The deputation referenced timescales for required remedial actions and contended that there was a failure to assess all communal parts of the blocks and failure to identify or assess accurately combustible materials on external wall systems.

The deputation continued to outline the following, to support their concerns about the timing of the assessments and their conclusions on the poor content of assessments:

-       Observation of a downward change in the quality of the Fire Risk Assessments, and there were assessments with no time scales or action plans. The deputation were concluding that the Council were seeking to shift the work away from public oversight.

-       Referring to a previous Council house fire from 4 years ago, which had rapid fire spread in an unassessed roof space, the deputation emphasised the importance of needing to check all common parts of Council buildings, but the deputation believed that nothing had been learned from this fire.

-       That there had been a mis - rating of blocks, for example John Keats House and Newbury House in Wood Green which were rated at tolerable risk of fire with the deputation concluding that this would mean no Council spend on these blocks. The deputation questioned the reliability of this assessment as these blocks each had six vertical ribbons of combustible panels up the sides with an estimated 360 square metres of combustible material in each case, plus defective fire doors, both the fire doors were flat. The deputation continued to outline that these blocks had front doors that were flat and had doors in communal corridors. These were all in fifteen storey buildings, and each with a single staircase. The deputation felt that this was a mis – rating and placed resident’s lives at risk.

-       Noting that intrusive external wall tests were based on test specification PAS 9980, which takes the risk-based approach, the deputation questioned the reliability of this standard and contended that the only satisfactory outcome is certainty on the performance of external walls in fire, with zero risk to life as the principal objective. The deputation assessed that these tests would most likely keep dangerous material on the walls of homes, especially if the current contractor carried out the assessments.

The deputation concluded by requesting that the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7