Council leader Georgia Gould at the Chalcots this morning

EVACUATED residents say they want answers about why they found themselves being forced to leave their homes through the night as the first claims emerged that Camden Council had already been warned about problems on the Chalcots Estate beyond the cladding.

At the centre of the confusion is the turnaround from messages of reassurance from the Town Hall issued on Thursday that cladding was only coming down as a precaution to the urgent warnings to leave immediately last night. As the New Journal reported first yesterday evening, London Fire Brigade inspectors had found new issues with gas pipes and fire doors, warning the council that it could not protect against a blaze at the tower blocks.  They were sent in to check the buildings after the council ordered the removal of cladding wrapped around the estate in the wake of the Grenfell tower block disaster last week. Plastic found in the materials used at the block in Kensington had been discovered in sampling at the Chalcots.

While the revelations about the cladding potentially being flammable is new, there were questions about how long Camden has been aware of other potential defects in the blocks in Adelaide Road and what the most recent fire risk assessments for the estate say.

Green councillor Sian Berry said: “I am very sorry that so many Camden residents are having to leave their homes. It’s clear the Chalcots towers are unsafe to live in right now. Partly this is due to dangerous cladding but it’s a combination of this and other internal issues that have led to this judgment today. The other issues inside the building should already have dealt with by Camden. It appears from the London Fire Brigade that critical safety failures had already been identified in earlier risk assessments and not dealt with promptly.”

She added: “Camden has not yet published these risk assessment documents despite requests since last week. If the serious risks that have led to the evacuation today are in them I, along with thousands of residents, will be wanting answers as to why they weren’t put right. It’s very upsetting to find Camden homes involved in this kind of scandal.”

Mandy Ryan, a member of the tenants and residents association, said: “I’m so angry. Yesterday they were telling people it was safe and now there’s this panic, telling everyone to leave their homes and go to the library on a Friday night. It’s all about the gas pipes, apparently. That’s what the firefighters found were unsafe.”

Green councillor Sian Berry

At a meeting with residents of the estate on Thursday evening, the Town Hall leadership faced repeated demands to say who had signed off work at the Chalcots, following a refurbishment of the tower blocks funded by a Private Finance Initiative. In the years that followed the completion of the works, tenants complained of a series of problems, often through the pages of the New Journal, such as broken lifts and lighting failure. The litany and regularity of the complaints led to the unwanted nickname of ‘Camden’s unluckiest estate’. A fire which destroyed a flat on the 17th floor five years ago, however, was contained to just one property.

Council leader Councillor Georgia Gould was back at the estate this morning (Saturday). She said: “Questions about how this could happen to these buildings will be asked, answered and actioned.”