Nancy Taaffe, from campaign group Save our Square, demands the council does more to show it has prevented a Grenfell-type fire from ever happening in Waltham Forest
Save Our Square has battled for better housing in this borough for many years. Everything we have been campaigning on has been highlighted in the recently published Grenfell Inquiry Report.
After the long-awaited, damning report on the Grenfell fire in 2017, Waltham Forest residents need to know whether all tower blocks in our area are safe.
The report said that having only one staircase undermined the evacuation of residents and the Mayor of London has already specified that new plans must include two staircases.
Despite this, the two Walthamstow Mall towers, whose planning was agreed in 2017, have been constructed with only one staircase each.
The report also describes how both Labour and Tory government policies, and austerity measures going back to the 1990s, hollowed out local authorities’ workforce, whose role is to independently manage building control regulations.
Building companies were boosted by the “bonfire” of so-called red tape, including health and safety measures. The report also criticises the usefulness of the stay-in-your-flat policy, so firmly implemented by the fire brigade. The question has been raised that if evacuation had been adopted then many of the residents could have got out.
The Fire Brigades Union, and other housing campaigners, say that this policy was fine – so long as the tower blocks were well-maintained.
However, after years of austerity under the coalition and Tory governments along with the profit-driven culture of the private sector, maintenance has not kept pace and blocks are becoming more dilapidated. As to the fundamental issue of cladding, what would-be steps has the council made to ensure the cladding on the two new tower blocks in Selbourne Road will be safe in the case of a fire?
Has the cladding been provided by any of the companies highlighted in the Grenfell Report and whom the government will no longer award contracts to? Are the current building regulations fit for this purpose? The public has a right to know that such checks have been made before these buildings can be signed off for occupation.
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