A freedom of information request about a former office block in South Bristol became a "reputational issue" for the city's mayor.
This information has come to light as a review into Imperial Apartments is due to be published imminently, BristolLive understands. Back in mid-February, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees announced the council was to pause housing families with children at the controversial complex as he admitted there are "some challenges" at the site.
In recent months, BristolLive has reported on many concerns from residents at the former Parkview office complex in Hengrove - now known as Imperial Apartments. Earlier this year, the Bristol South MP asked the council to stop housing families with children at the development, with the Lib Dems then joining the call and one councillor urging the council "to take responsibility".
READ MORE: More than 100 children living at converted south Bristol office block
In an email obtained via a separate FOI request, the mayor's office wrote to the council’s director for housing and landlord services that the lack of response to a FOI had become a "reputational issue" for the mayor. The email exchange on November 24, 2021, followed a press briefing that same day where BristolLive asked the mayor why a FOI request about the site hadn’t been responded to.
The email from the mayor's office to Donald Graham, which also had the mayor’s chief of staff Kevin Slocombe copied in, reads: "At the fortnightly press conference earlier today, a Bristol Post reporter asked the Mayor a question about how many complaints the Council had received about standards at Imperial Apartments – and why the Council has not responded to an FOI request on this matter.
“The Mayor was unable to provide the answer to the number of complaints, and was also unable to answer the question to as to why we had not responded to an FOI request on the matter. Having spoken to and looked into the overdue FOI on iCasework (19744625) I understand that the ICO are now involved due to our non-response but no information has been provided so far.
“As you can understand, this FOI has now become a reputational issue for the Mayor. So we need to know what the council’s response is so we can share it with the journalists and the Mayor, but we also need to understand there has been no response from the service to repeated requests for the information.
“Can you please provide this information as a matter of urgency? Thank you in advance.”
Do you live at Imperial Apartments? What do you think about living there? Our reporter Estel would love to hear from you. You can contact her directly on estel.farellroig@reachplc.com
To which Mr Graham replied that same evening: “Thanks, wasn’t aware of this, you will get a response tomorrow, donald”. And then a third email was sent by an edited-out sender: “Hope the exercise of our heft works”.
An email sent on January 31, 2022, states that Mr Rees wanted to visit Imperial Apartments "as soon as possible". Further emails indicate that two visits were booked to the site - on February 15 at 9am, the day before the council announced the review, and also on February 22.
The mayor's diary shows that only the visit on February 22 went ahead, while the emails show he was due to be joined by Councillor Tom Renhard, the cabinet member for housing, and Paul Sylvester - the city’s head of housing options.
An email from the council’s housing and landlord services on February 9, 2022, about the visit states: “He will absolutely be able to talk to staff and any residents he bumps into, but it would be difficult to keep the visit discreet from the media if we ask residents in advance to speak to the Mayor. That said, if the Mayor wishes to guarantee to speak to residents then we can look into arranging this.”
Back in August 2020, Bristol City Council revealed it was planning on housing people in the converted office block in South Bristol. Initially, the council agreed to take on 216 properties at Imperial Apartments and, at the time, housing chiefs at Bristol City Council admitted they had concerns about teaming up with a developer accused of creating “human warehousing” - but said they were "determined to make this development a success and thriving community in which to live".
The complex was being redeveloped by Caridon, a company which was the subject of a Newsnight investigation as residents in one of their developments in London complained to the journalists about overcrowding and the mix of people, speaking about violence and substance misuse.
Caridon turned it into homes without the need for planning consent under permitted development rights, which meant the usual regulations stipulating minimum sizes did not apply. According to the floor plans submitted to Bristol City Council, studios at the development start at 18m2 - which is smaller than the average 29m2 shipping container - while the two bedroom flats at the site start at 38m2 and go up to 76m2.
The law was then changed and it now requires new homes built under permitted development rights to be over 37m2, with two-bedrooms units being a minimum of 61m2. In March 2021, the council then agreed to make more units at the site and, out of 465 units of private rented accommodation at Imperial Apartments, Bristol City Council now rents out 316 of them - more than two-thirds of the total.
More than a hundred children are living at Imperial Apartments. With 108 children there in total now, this would mean that up to a third of those have children living in them.
