Residents of Pendleton flats are facing another cold Christmas in drafty tower blocks with missing cladding.
Unsafe cladding was removed from nine tower blocks in Salford several years ago in the wake of the fatal Grenfell Tower blaze but in many cases it has yet to be replaced.
The housing association Pendleton Together, which manages the blocks, including Malus Court, is still working its way through a backlog of repairs which are not due to be complete until next year.
A Remediation Acceleration Plan announced by the new Labour Government says affected buildings need to be repaired by the end of 2029 or landlords will be fined so that will not actually speed things up in Salford.
Tenants say they have waited long enough and that the deadline is too long.
Graeme, 40, a resident of Malus Court, said: “It’s seven years since Grenfell, eight years soon, and no one has apologised to us. Not one of them has said we will fix all these problems soon. They’ve just left us to rot.”
He says tenants feel they’ve been left in the dark about the schedule of work on the building, and say complaints go unheard.
Scaffolding is up and work is under way on the outside of the block but tenants say there are issues indoors as well and they don’t know when they are going to be repaired.
He and the other residents are still fearful about what would happen if a fire broke out before the work is complete.
He said he reported a faulty fire door on November 1. As of December 3, the door was still yet to be fixed.
“If we have a fire, that’s not going to withhold the fire,” he said.
In the same section of the hallway, windows would not fully open, so could not be used to escape in the event of a fire where other exits are blocked.
He said: “If there is a fire, and smoke gets trapped in here [hallway], there’s no way of escaping. It’s a fire trap. We’ll have to die if the smoke comes in. We don’t die by the fire we die by the smoke because there’s no means of escape.”
A spokesperson from Pendleton Together said: “We continue to work to inform and support tenants while the work is ongoing.”
They explained that the windows do not fully open at this time for the safety of contractors working on scaffolding outside the flats, and that in the event of a fire, using the windows to escape would be extremely dangerous due to the scaffolding.
They also stated that they introduced a “walking watch” 24/7 fire marshal system days after the Grenfell Tower incident, to ensure residents are kept safe while works continue on the building.
When we visited on the ground floor of the flats, exposed wires hung from the ceiling, and on the outside, what looked to be insulation was exposed as the cover had come loose.
The gaps left where cladding was removed mean the homes are cold, drafty and expensive to heat.
“People are either eating or heating,” Graeme said.
He said one of the elderly residents was having to go to bed early because it was too cold to sit up in the evening.
Pendleton Together said information on the cladding repair was available to residents through a newsletter, website, and signs on noticeboards. Drop-in sessions are provided to share any concerns with members of staff.
They said: “Resident safety is key to our work and we ask that all residents support us with this by contacting us directly if they have concerns.”
One Comment