Protesting Holly Lodge residents have been told the rooftop exits do not comply with safety standards and should be permanently locked

• AS a long-term resident of the Holly Lodge Estate, I attended the recent meeting between Camden Council and the London Fire Brigade to hear the proposals to close the roof exits on all 32 of our mansion blocks, (Row over locks on roof fire exits, September 28).

The Holly Lodge Residents’ Association, of which I am treasurer, had secured agreement from Camden that a manual override would be installed when the exits are locked, so they could be opened in the event of an emergency.

However, recently we learned that this would not now be possible and that the doors would be shut indefinitely.

I strongly believe that residents living in the mansion blocks, like myself, should be able to open the roof exit doors in the event of an unforeseen emergency.

For example, what if a fire was in a corridor or a ground-floor flat? Our only other exit – the main front door – would be blocked by flames and smoke.

Similarly if flooding was to occur on the ground floor residents would have no other means of leaving the building.

At the meeting many residents revealed their plans to purchase rope ladders to escape from balconies or sledgehammers to tear down the roof doors. Allowing the roof exits to open when a fire alarm goes off has to be safer than this.

Two potential exits must be better than one.

One point I raised at the meeting was that not every mansion block flat has had their fire door installed, something that surprised Camden officers.

I’ll be visiting every block myself in the next couple of weeks to count the number of missing fire doors, which I will share with officers.

At the very least the roof exits should not be locked until every fire door is installed.

I am extremely disappointed that Camden changed its mind on enabling a manual override of the roof exit doors; this sudden reversal has damaged trust in the council.

I will be working with the residents’ association to call on Camden Council to reinstate their commitment to install this manual override.

Our safety must come first.

LORNA JANE RUSSELL
Former Camden Councillor Green Party