IT’S DREAD LETTER DAY
Towers residents advised to seek safety advice
HUNDREDS of people in Scotland’s largest city have received letters confirming tower blocks they live in have Grenfell-style cladding.
Residents at three separate high-rises in Glasgow have been told the developer of their properties has “verified that limited aluminium composite material (ACM) is present on the building”.
ACM became notorious following the Grenfell fire in London in June. The cladding material was believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire up the outside of the tower.
MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s local government committee heard last month from a senior official on Glasgow City Council that a survey in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire identified combustible cladding on privately owned flats in the city.
Residents of two multi-storey tower blocks – in Castlebank Place and 350 Meadowside Quay – received letters as the material in their buildings is similar to that on Grenfell Tower.
The residents were told they should “seek specialist fire safety advice” as their block is above 18m in height and “has a cladding system as part of its construction”.
Block 1 on Castlebank Place is understood to have 273sqm of cladding and the block next to it on Meadowside Quay is believed to also have 273sqm. A shorter block on Glasgow Harbour Terrace was identified as having three smaller areas of 37sqm of cladding in use. The material is understood to have been used to clad external lift shaft coverings on the three blocks.
Iain Boswell, 55, who lives on the seventh floor in the 16-storey Meadowside Quay block with his wife Teresa, 63, and daughter Kat, 26, was one of the residents to receive a letter. He said: ”This is a big concern. “A couple of years ago, the cladding on the outside of the building was replaced because some of the tiles had fallen off.
“They put on a metallic type of material, which to me, is now also a worry.
“I wonder if we should be concerned about that, too, because it seems the council only give out information when someone else raises concerns.”
Iain, who has lived in the flat for six-and-a-half years, added: “This is a huge issue for all the residents.
“It has been the talk of the place for the last couple of weeks that these blocks are a risk.”
In the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze, the Scottish Government ordered councils to carry out checks to see if ACM had been used on flats in their area.
Glasgow City Council revealed combustible cladding had been found on 57 private high-rise buildings. Last month, the authority said a further probe had reduced that total to 19.