Fire brigade defends actions against Southwark
The London Fire Brigade has launched a robust defence of its actions after Southwark Council criticised the way it issued fire enforcement notices on three tower blocks.
Gill Davies, strategic director of housing and environment with Southwark Council, criticised the way the enforcement notices had been issued in a public meeting.
The notices were issued on three Southwark tower blocks, Perronet House, Marie Curie House and Castlemead House, following a horrendous fire in a fourth Southwark block, Lakanal House, which killed six people in July. The notices outlined a raft of faults including the absence of suitable fire risk assessments for the blocks and fire doors that were either not fire resistant and/or self-closing.
Ms Davies said that before the notices were issued the fire brigade had ‘told me face to face that there were no significant issues [with the three blocks]. I was expecting no significant issues from them – no enforcement notices.
‘I have written to the fire brigade saying how deeply unhappy I was to have received zilch warning.’
But the LFB hit back in a statement released to Inside Housing saying: ‘The issues we found at those three housing blocks were verbally communicated to Southwark Council immediately following our inspections. This was followed up by a meeting on 7 August with senior officers from Southwark Council to discuss the seriousness of the issues we had found. Three enforcement notices were subsequently issued on 11 August.
‘It is regrettable that London Borough of Southwark feels that enforcement action was not necessary, however, the issuing of enforcement notices is normal procedure for dealing with breaches of fire safety regulation of this level of non-compliance’.
Inside Housing is running a campaign calling for action to stop preventable deaths from gas and fire. For more on this see our Safe as Houses campaign page.
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Readers' comments (3)
kass | 01/10/2009 10:55 am
Surely the first to know about any fire warning and fire regulation breaches should be the tenants themselves whose lives are at risk?...
and here it is another social landlord starting some kind of blame game attacking the fire service which must be one of the only very few services left in this country acting with the greatest integrity and without any bias, with civic virtues Southwark council has never ever even got close to match.
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stevejhunt | 01/10/2009 4:13 pm
I would have thought that the first thing that would have been done by the Council following the Lakanal tragedy was to ensure that all other blocks that it owns had up to date fire risk assessments and that works identified had been completed. I find it amazing that basic fire safety requirements have not been complied with and that it has been necessary for the Fire Authority to issue enforcement notices.
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janet yatak | 01/10/2009 9:36 pm
I find it amazing that Gill Davies can say she did not know about it all, When the order was issued it was then stated in the press by the Acting Leader of the council that the order was unneccessary, as the council had agreed the works voluntary three weeks before, so surely if the council agreed to do the work , they did know about the concerns, otherwise what work did they agree to , either Gill Davies did not know about the agreement between the LFB and the council or she has a memory loss. If the council are now taking our safety seriously they would own up that they got it wrong, apologise and tell us that they are getting it right now, but instead of which they tell us a load of codswallop.
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