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.
Read more: Fire marshals on Bristol council tower block ‘waking watch’ will cost £200k a week
Opposition Tory Cllr Geoff Gollop told member forum that this ongoing cost “pales into insignificance compared with the safety of our residents” but that it was still prone to human error by the wardens and could not be the solution for the next five years. He asked: “Are we looking at accelerating the capital programme to remove the need for a waking watch and to improve the safety of residents?”
Cllr Renhard replied: “Yes, we already have – the cabinet paper we took in December outlined a lot of that. The point of the communal fire alarms going in was that it will negate the need for a waking watch.
“Some blocks, though, will have the EPS cladding removed quicker. Obviously the priority is our residents and their safety but we are considering the finance in among what is an additional £75million on top of the £25million that was already earmarked for fire safety that we have had to find provision for, largely over the next five years.
“Eccleston House and Phoenix House have already had EPS cladding removed, so the waking watch has been removed in consultation with the fire service, and the next block we expect that to be the case for is Gilton House. We are taking every step possible to implement fire safety measures, so next week cabinet’s papers will be published setting out the detail of what we are doing around fire safety, sprinklers and communal fire alarms.”
Sprinklers were installed at Butler House after tenants in the original block set for the pilot project, Castlegate House in Brislington, objected. In a written reply to questions from other Conservative councillors, Labour mayor Marvin Rees, who did not attend because of illness, said: “When surveyed the residents had experienced two other fires within the block which were contained within a single property, resulting in them feeling safe in their homes.
“Residents also did not want the potential disruption nor did they like the aesthetics of the sprinkler after a trial in a flat and laundry area.” He said lessons learned resulted in a new design to make it look nicer by hiding the pipework.
“We should also consider the risks to people’s property should sprinklers be triggered by an incident in another nearby property,” Mr Rees said. The mayor said new powers were available to the council under the Building Safety Act, including powers of entry to support safety activity, so “any opposition to installations may be overcome considerately with residents, but legally if required”.
He added: “This would need to form part of a wider policy and consultation process with residents that has not yet happened.” Cllr Renhard told the meeting that cabinet was considering whether to take a “split approach” by simply installing sprinklers in some blocks and holding a ballot of tenants in others to decide whether to have them.
“Either way, the funding for the sprinkler programme will be fully costed for within the five-year programme for all blocks, irrespective of what approach we take, so we are not going to make any attempt to try to get out of the sprinkler programme and funding it fully,” he said.
A fire in Eccleston House in October injured six people. The fire service said the flammable cladding contributed to its spread. It happened just one month after the fatal Twinnell House blaze in Easton.
Read next:
Residents 'win battle' over fire safety with sprinklers promised for every tower block
Bristol tower blocks: More than half have flammable polystyrene cladding
Only one Bristol tower block installed with sprinklers since 2019 pledge
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