A nine-storey block of luxury apartments overlooking Castle Park will have to be stripped back and all its insulation and brickwork replaced because surveys have found flammable cladding was used when it was built.
Castle Wharf is in a prominent position on the corner of Finzel’s Reach and part of the major mid-2010s development that saw almost 400 flats, shops, offices and a micro-brewery created from the former dock warehouse buildings that are opposite Castle Park.
The nine-storey building was one of the new build blocks constructed in and around the former warehouse, brewery and factory buildings, with two-bed flats now on the market there for £375,000 to buy or £1,840 a month to rent. People who have bought 120 year leases on their flats have to pay around £3,550 a year in service charges and ground rent of around £335 a year.
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Now council planners have given approval to a plan by the company that own and manage the building to completely remove the cladding on the sides of the building, and replace it with what is described as ‘non-combustible’ insulation.
The plan also includes installing new fire barriers in what the applicants are describing as a ‘like-for-like’ replacement.
A council planning officer’s report said the authority gave it permission without needing any public consultation or meeting with councillors because it was a like-for-like replacement and when it is completed, the building itself won’t look any different.
The planning application was first made last autumn, long before the local government minister Michael Gove announced a crackdown on private developers and building owners who had not signed up to a Government scheme to pledge to replace flammable cladding - almost six years after the Grenfell tragedy in London.
The planning officer’s report said: “It is agreed that there would be no change in the external appearance of the building, with exception to the weathering of the existing materials to be replaced.
“All external finishes will match the existing materials in terms of colour, materiality and quality. It is concluded that the appearance of the proposed replacement materials with fire-resistant materials would not materially affect the external appearance of the building,” they added.
Read next:
Fire marshalls stepped down as cladding made safe at two Bristol council tower blocks
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