Agenda item

To follow.

 The Committee received a report which provided and update on intrusive fire safety inspections. The report was introduced by Judith Page, Assistant Director for Property Services as set out in the second dispatch agenda pack at page 1. The following arose as part of the discussion on this report:

1. In response to a question, officers advised that the spandrel windows in question were in the stairwell rather than the domestic areas, so a stay put strategy was assessed as being safer. Officers emphasised that a stay put strategy was based on advice that residents should only stay put as long as they felt safe. Often when there was a fire in a block, the surrounding units did not realise there was a fire due to the fire being compartmentalised through the building’s design. One of the key differences between the two strategies in terms of the infrastructure works undertaken, was that there was no fire alarm alerting people to evacuate the building in a block with a stay put strategy. It was noted that Headcorn & Tenterdon had moved to an evacuation strategy and that a fire alarm system had been installed.
2. In relation to a query about the risk of fire spreading vertically up through stairwells, officers advised that the fire risk assessments were carried out by external fire engineers and qualified fire risk assessors, and they had re-evaluated each of the high risk blocks as part of the fire safety inspection process.
3. In response to a question about building safety, officers reassured members that there were no unsafe buildings in the borough. Stella House was deemed as being the highest risk block and work was underway to install a fire alarm system and a waking watch had been in place to ensure it was patrolled constantly by staff, since the building assessment was carried out. Officers acknowledged that there were a number of fire safety risk assessment actions that needed to be completed, as did all similar organisations, these actions were being worked through.
4. In response to a question about the recruitment of a number of fire safety managers, officers advised that these roles were going out to recruitment shortly and that this had been delayed slightly because of insourcing.
5. Officers advised that all blocks deemed high risk would need a building safety case in place by September 2023. These cases were incredibly detailed. Officers also advised that they had regular meetings with senior officers from the fire brigade, which took place every six weeks or so.
6. Members sought clarification around the fact that the report identified one block as being high risk and that a number of other blocks were identified as substantial and manageable risk. In response, officers advised that ‘high risk’ blocks were identified under the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety Act 2021, as being above 18 meters tall. These would always be deemed as high risk due to the specialist equipment needed by the fire brigade to tackle a fire in buildings that size. Separate to this, when the assessments were carried out about spandrel window panels, these were given varying levels of risk for the Council to prioritise when it carried out works to those blocks. Officers emphasised that these buildings were safe and that a high risk rating for fire safety in terms of spandrel windows related to that specific feature, rather than the whole building.
7. In response to concerns about delays to Type Four fire safety inspections, officers advised that all Type Four surveys had been done. However, there were a number of actions that came out of these assessments that needed to be completed. The works identified as part of the Type Four assessments would be undertaken as part of the major works programme due to the type and cost of works involved.

RESOLVED

Noted.