Cladding being removed in October 2017

COUNCIL officials are working to see if a legal settlement can be reached with five firms involved in a deal to reclad the Chalcots estate.

In the latest step of a saga traced back to the private finance initiative (PFI) for the estate agreed by Camden in 2006, the Town Hall is engaged in proceedings over the refurbishment work which saw the flammable aluminium composite material (ACM) used to cover the five tower blocks.

Fire safety issues detected in the summer of 2017 after the Grenfell Tower tragedy saw up to 4,000 Chalcots residents forced to leave their homes in a sudden evacuation – an unprecedented move which left some sleeping on the floor of the Swiss Cottage leisure centre.

The New Journal’s Chalcots Inquiry has repeatedly called for an investigation to untangle the PFI – part of the Labour government’s controversial strategy for repairing council homes. The campaign argues Camden has a duty to find out what went wrong on behalf of the long-suffering residents.

In November 2019, the council submitted a £130million claim to the High Court against contractor Partners for Improvement in Camden (PFIC), which is made up of five sub-contractors: Rydon Construction Ltd, Rydon Maintenance Ltd, Faithful + Gould, and United Living South Limited. PFIC has since been dissolved.

But a mediation process will now see an attempt to strike a resolution before potentially costly proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The council’s submissions said that it believes “multiple fire safety failings” breached building regulations and that the firms are liable for the full costs of the evacuation. The council wants payback for work to remove “combustible” cladding materials, replacing “inadequate” fire doors and repairing dozens of other “serious defects”. Fire marshals and security guards also oversaw the buildings for two years.

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According to the council, the formal mediation session will take place next month. It has warned that all parties at the meeting need to have the power to agree a settlement.

The latest development comes as the council has put out to tender £100m of work on four of the estate’s blocks: Bray, Burnham, Dorney and Taplow. A separate process started earlier this year for £22m of repairs on the slightly shorter Blashford tower. It says works could take up to 25 months, which could mean they run to 2024, despite the possibility previously being dismissed by Camden’s housing chief Meric Apak as a “nasty rumour”.

As well as cladding, the works will include new radiators, windows, and repairs to ground-floor and first-floor brickwork. The controversial “tilt and turn” window design was approved by planning committee members despite concerns about their safety. They have been part of the dispute between residents and the Camden in the past 18 months.

Hasan Shah, chair of Burnham tenants and residents association, said: “The amount of money that has been wasted on this project so far, they should be going for as much as possible. They’ve got a very different tone now, from taking them to court to ‘now we will try and deal with them outside it’. We don’t know how much they’re going for and how much that is compared to what they originally said.”

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said: “We intend to recover as much of our costs as possible. “The council will attempt mediation in good faith in June but if necessary will go to trial. This is public money we need back to spend on Camden residents.”

Call for tower repairs

THE chairwoman of a tenants and residents association (TRA) has criticised poor maintenance and a lack of repairs, saying her partner could have been killed after nearly falling down stairs, writes Harry Taylor.

Mandy Ryan, who chairs the group for Dorney block on the Chalcots, said her housebound partner Lance Perry nearly fell down stairs outside their 22nd-floor flat as he tried to get down to the lifts, because they had fallen into disrepair.

He has reduced mobility while he recovers from a ruptured aorta and a stroke.

Mandy Ryan

She said: “He said it was because he’d gone to put his stick down and there had basically been a hole there – the nose of the step had eroded away. If he was on his own, he’d have fallen and it’d have been down five steps. That would have been end of story I think. He’s now worried about leaving the house because of that risk.”

Ms Ryan raised the issue with Camden Council officers on March 25, but did not get a reply.

Town Hall housing chief Meric Apak said he was sorry to hear about the incident, and told the New Journal that the council would be contacting residents this week with a solution ahead of works next month.

In the past week concrete has fallen from the first raised floor of the Chalcots onto the floor, which Ms Ryan said was another incident where somebody was lucky not to have been hurt.

A Town Hall spokesman said only the surface of the concrete has been damaged and was caused by water getting into it from above.

“Repairs are in progress and will be completed over the coming days, dependent on weather conditions” he added.

Ms Ryan said: “It’s disgraceful. It’s another accident waiting to happen. What if the caretaker was walking underneath? No work or maintenance is going on at the moment, and when you raise an issue you don’t even get a response. They just don’t seem to care.”