Student flats won’t win UK City of Culture title

WELCOME to Campus Coventry!

When on earth are Coventry City Council going to realise that student accomodation is not going to be of any gain to the proposed City of Culture. Don’t make me laugh!

No proper concert venue/hall, no proper football stadium, no speedway stadium.

All we have is a city of monstrous tower blocks in gaudy colours. I hope they are not clad in flammable cladding, which are empty for half the year not providing any income to the city.

We provide the education so they can find jobs worldwide, but not in this city. All we get is the rubbish left behind when they leave, for someone else to clear up. K J Clarke Wyken

Danger at Grenfell was from outside in

THE Grenfell Tower fire on June 14 was a terrible tragedy and, according to one former fire officer, it was a disaster just waiting to happen. Exactly why this was so is still not clear and the whole picture will not become any clearer until all the facts have been established. Having been employed in construction all of my working life I am aware that the reinforced concrete multistorey flats built during the 1960s and 70s had to have a specified fire resistance. This was provided for by the thickness of concrete covering to the steel reinforcement. The dimensions of this cover was varied to provide the required period of fire resistance, be it 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, etc. This also complied with the British Standards and building regulations of the time for the particular type of building being designed. These various standards produced safe and stable buildings which would not collapse in the event of a fire and which ordinarily would have been contained within each flat.

In addition, the external spread of flame on roofs and walls and at openings in these was controlled by well-defined rules. Maximum travelling distances to safe points of exit were also specified to ensure a sufficient number of protected shafts such as escape stairs etc were provided.

In cases of doubt, fire officers were consulted and their recommendations followed.

The question that needs to be answered therefore is not whether fire standards are adequate, but what has changed to make what were considered to be safe fire standards then, unsafe now?

The answer appears to be that the older regulations have been relaxed to allow inferior materials to be added to the exterior surfaces.

The video recordings show quite clearly that the surface spread of flame was very rapid and that the danger to the occupants of the building was from the ‘outside in’ and not from the ‘inside out’, as would normally be the case.

Let’s hope the truth comes out and those who lost their lives get justice. B Morris Coventry

Will Pool Meadow travel shop be next?

NATIONAL Express has closed its Travel Shop in Solihull.

They say that this is due to the number of online purchases.

Is the shop in Pool Meadow on the list to close? Fred Forster Radford