Another “freezing” Winter for the Salford tower block tenants

Residents of Pendleton, Hornbeam and Salix Court, sadly have to spend another winter in ice cold conditions thanks to the delay in the removal of highly flammable cladding.

The sad tragedy of Grenfell Tower highlighted the fact that multiple high block towers across the UK had unsafe cladding. Nine of them were found to be located in Salford.

However, what was supposed to be a finished job by 2022, is looking to be extended until 2026, possibly even 2027. 

This delay had left residents in their homes with no cladding often spending too much on heating or sharing beds with family members to keep themselves warm.  

Sadly, this means people like 75-year-old Frank Green, a tenant of Salix Court, will spend another Christmas cold, worried and frustrated.

Frank explained there’s: “Scaffolding being put up; scaffolding being taken down; cladding being put up scaffolding being taken down. 

“We’re (tower block residents) a family of people. We’re all suffering the same.

“We have had no update since August on what is happening. No information from our landlord. 

“Last year was very cold. Whoever gets up first, puts the heating on straight away and then switches it off around 10 am. We manage our heating precisely, if we didn’t it would easily be over £300 a month.

“I suffer from pneumonia and I struggle to get rid of it, the heating conditions don’t help.’’ 

Frank was a part of a Facebook called ACORN. The group would meet up weekly to discuss the matter and what they could do to help the tenants’ suffering. They claim the council has “ignored” their cries for help to quicken the process of fixing the cladding.

This has led to them losing hope. The group no longer meet up to talk about the issue. 

As you can see the energy usage across the UK has dropped, since the energy bill support scheme ended in March 2023. This scheme helped support vulnerable people.

Like the tenants living in the high-rise tower blocks with no scaffolding. This winter without the help of the scheme and energy bill price cap increasing, warmth is a constant worry. 

The cladding is affecting people who live in these high-rise flats day in, day out. They were promised the matter would be fixed by last Christmas.

This broken promise means Frank Green will spend another Christmas cold.