Fears the £100m Chalcots project will bring serious health and safety issues 

• IT is four years since Chalcots residents were evacuated from our homes in the middle of the night, in the floodlights of the media storm, by Camden Council officers, as a result of Camden requesting extended fire safety checks following the Grenfell Tower disaster several days earlier.

Senior fire officers saw such serious communal area fire-stopping issues, in addition to having the flammable ACM – aluminium composite material – cladding, they had no choice but force evacuations with 3,500 people asked to leave their homes in four towers.

We are now awaiting the appointment of a new contractor to take responsibility for the final replacement of cladding and insulations to our homes, which will take another three to four years, with collateral effects of Covid, and also the controversial replacement of windows with a new design, and radiators that we did not want or ask for.

We residents have great fears for the chaos, the disruption, that this final stage will create with invasion into every room of every flat here.

We have no confidence in the project plans put out by Camden Council. Cllr Meric Apak, cabinet member for better homes, claims that the council are consulting and involving residents.

This is demonstrably not true. The vast majority of residents are not actively involved and do not agree with the plans.

Camden have created so called “task and finish” groups and Camden-appointed groups that are limited in scope and time and are not allowed to question design or the execution of any part of the management of the work in the project.

This is one-way, “public relations”, communication and there are now no arenas for discussion and full participation as we had at the beginning of the project.

We sadly have no confidence in Camden’s management ability to perform and execute simple maintenance tasks here and are therefore terrified the management of this £100million project will bring serious health and safety issues into our homes.

SAYED MEAH
BRIAN MORREY
Burnham residents

CARL PERRY
Dorney TRA Committee

ANTHONY ROYLE
Bray ex-TRA Chair

NIGEL RUMBLE
Bray TRA Representative & DMC Member

MANDY RYAN
Dorney TRA Secretary

HASAN SHAH
Burnham TRA Chair & DMC Member