More than half of council tower blocks in Bristol have flammable polystyrene cladding which will be removed after a fire last month. Removing the cladding could take a decade and fire safety experts are warning hundreds of tower blocks across the country might be affected.
Residents living in nearly 3,000 flats across 38 tower blocks will see Bristol City Council remove polystyrene cladding on their homes and replace it with a rock-based cladding. Meanwhile waking watch marshals will patrol affected tower blocks as a safety measure.
Concerns were sparked last week after the Avon Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze at Eccleston House in Barton Hill in October, which seriously injured six people, was spread by the expanded polystyrene (EPS) cladding used on the outside of the tower block.
Read more: 'Banksy is in Ukraine' - speculation mounts as more artowrk appears
One tower block with EPS cladding is Twinnell House in Easton, where a fatal fire broke out in September on the top floor. While the fire didn’t spread, council chiefs said they weren’t sure whether the fire could have spread via the cladding if it started on a floor lower down.
Councillor Tom Renhard, cabinet member for housing, gave details about how EPS cladding affected Bristol’s tower block residents, while speaking to the World at One programme on BBC Radio Four on Thursday, November 10. He faced questions over why removing and replacing the cladding could take between eight to 10 years.
He said: “With Twinnell House, that was on the top floor of the block. It has the same type of cladding, but it’s a newer cladding system. What we’re not sure about is if it had been on the seventh floor rather than the sixteenth, whether it would have spread or not.
“One of the real challenges with getting all of the blocks remediated and refurbished is the availability of the market, both in terms of scaffolding and also the labour and materials to carry out the work. We couldn’t scaffold 38 tower blocks tomorrow, because the resources wouldn’t be available locally to do that. We’ll go as quick as we can though because we want to proceed without delay.
“This is a precautionary measure that we’re taking. We’re arranging meetings with all of our residents in high-rise blocks, in conjunction with the fire service, so that residents can meet us and ask questions. We’ll be in regular communication as well, and they should follow any advice that we provide.
“The blocks with waking watches now have a simultaneous evacuation policy, so if there are concerns over a fire or smoke, they should be getting out of the building. The regulations have moved on a lot since Grenfell, and the original focus from Grenfell was on aluminium composite material cladding, which this is not. There’s new information that’s being brought forward all the time.”
EPS cladding is a different material than the type which was found to cause the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, in which 72 people died. But concerns about EPS cladding have been growing over the past few years. Polystyrene is cheap to use and insulates buildings well, but as it is made out of petroleum, it can be very flammable.
Some experts say polystyrene is safe to use if rendered well, in a non-flammable material like cement. But a recent freedom of information request made by the Bristol Cable showed parts of the cement render on the cladding at Eccleston House had cracked, exposing the polystyrene.
Arnold Tarling, a fire safety expert, told the World at One show the council could take the cladding off much more quickly, by using abseilers instead of waiting for scaffolding. He also said a major fire in London six years ago spread through polystyrene.
He said: “We should have been dealing with [EPS cladding] long ago. There was a fire in west London in the summer of 2016, which was a polystyrene-based fire. In September 2019, London boroughs asked the government about whether they would be testing EPS panels on buildings and on external walls, and the government refused to test them.
“Now, it was known that these materials were flammable. Polystyrene burns, even though it’s fire-rated. We know that it spreads through the polystyrene very quickly. With EPS, you have a very thin resin glass-reinforced layer, which is non-combustible or of limited combustibility, but that doesn’t protect the polystyrene which melts and then starts burning.
“It will certainly take a long time to upgrade all the blocks, but there are methods of stripping the blocks fairly quickly. Instead of relying on scaffolding, why not use abseilers? There’s no need for expensive methods, you can get it done quicker and cheaper without having to invest in scaffolding.”
Asked whether the problem is more widespread than Bristol, Mr Tarling said EPS cladding is found across the country. He also said building owners are not yet taking action, and the government missed an opportunity to act much earlier.
“It will be country-wide and it won’t just be councils, it will be housing associations who have blocks, and it will be private owners as well. The government had the opportunity to carry out additional tests but refused to do so.”
The council will write to all affected tower block residents, explaining the works and new waking watch patrols. Sprinklers could also be installed in some tower blocks. In January 2019, the council said it would install sprinklers in all blocks which needed them, in a five-year programme. But so far, only one tower block has actually seen sprinklers installed.
A spokesperson from Bristol City Council said: “While works to accelerate both our EPS cladding removal programme and sprinkler programme are planned, prepared and completed we will be updating the evacuation policies and introducing a waking watch to 38 of our blocks.
“37 of the blocks are clad in EPS, and one is clad in materials so similar to EPS that it is being treated in the same manner. We would like to thank our high-rise residents for their help and understanding during this time as we add these new precautionary measures.
“Earlier this year we completed a pilot sprinkler installation project at Butler House in St George. An earlier pilot had been planned at Castlegate House but the majority of residents who responded objected to the sprinkler installation pilot, resulting in the system being ineffective if progressed with low uptake.
“The pilot at Butler House however worked well and we have learnt lessons regarding the process of implementation and how they can be delivered in the most efficient and effective way. We are now prioritising which of our high-rise blocks need them most, and we will be sharing our plans as soon as we possibly can. There will be an acceleration of the sprinkler programme, with the need for sprinklers evaluated on a block-by-block basis.”
Tower blocks which have EPS cladding and already have a waking watch are: Ashmead, Barton, Beaufort, Broughton, Croydon, Eccleston, Gilton, Harwood, Longlands, Phoenix and Yeamans.
Tower blocks which have EPS cladding and will soon have a waking watch are: Armada annex, Barlands, Barwick, Brandon, Brookrdige, Butler, Carolina annex, Castlegate, Chalcroft, Chestnut, Fremantle annex, Hayleigh, Holroyd, Middleford, Millmead, Moorfields, Northfield, Polden, Rawnsley, Redwood, Rowan, Sedgewick, Southbow, Twinnell, Whitemead and Winterstoke. Lansdowne has cladding which isn’t EPS but very similar, and will also have a waking watch.
Tower blocks which are unaffected and will see no changes are: Armada main block, Baynton, Carolina main block, Carr, Corbett, Danby, Francombe, Fremantle main block, Gaywood, Haviland, John Cozens, Kingsmarsh, Littlecross, Norton, Oak, Patterson, Proctor, Roegate, Ropewalk, Spencer, St Peter’s, Underdown, Waring and Willow.
READ NEXT
- Bright blue light spotted in Bristol sky explained
- New shop opening at Christmas Steps for festive season
- Bombed-out St Peter's Church at Castle Park could finally be reopened
- Popular pub near Bristol 'sorry' after announcing sudden closure
- Only one Bristol tower block installed with sprinklers since 2019 pledge
