A round-the-clock “waking watch” by fire marshals at two Bristol tower blocks has been stood down after dangerous cladding was made safe, it has been revealed. Work at Eccleston House and Phoenix House in Barton Hill has been completed, with Gilton House in Brislington next on the city council’s list of priorities to make its high-rises safe, cabinet member for housing Cllr Tom Renhard told a council meeting.
The announcement came ahead of an additional £75million of fire safety measures – three times the amount already earmarked by the local authority – which will be outlined next week in papers to a cabinet meeting later this month, the Labour frontbench councillor told member forum on Tuesday, January 10. But although Cllr Renhard confirmed in November that the council’s sprinkler programme would be “accelerated” after it emerged that the systems had been installed in just one block since a major investment was announced four years ago, he said this alone would not negate the need for a waking watch.
He told Tuesday’s meeting that fire patrols remained in place at Butler House in St George – the solitary building with sprinklers – because waking watches could only be removed on fire service advice if either the cladding was made safe or communal fire alarms were put in. Cabinet papers last month revealed that it will cost Bristol City Council £200,000 a week to pay for the 77 wardens patrolling 37 tower blocks with flammable polystyrene cladding, called EPS, and one with similar material, until the authority installed permanent fire safety measures.
