Tenants must move out for safety work at flats
Pensioners face being evacuated from their homes after fire chiefs recommended safety improvements to a block of flats.
Thirty- eight tenants at Rocky Hill Terrace, in Maidstone, were told they would be moved out as work is carried out, following an electrical fire in May. They will be given a minimum of £6,000 for relocation expenses.
Many of those living in the self-contained flats suffer from health or mobility issues and priority will be given to those deemed more vulnerable.
Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, met residents on Friday, along with Sanctuary Housing’s Simon Clark.
She said: “Their safety is paramount and it does seem the improvements needed to the structural compartmentation of the building will require the property to be vacated.”
Structural compartmentation is sub-dividing buildings into compartments to restrict the rapid spread of fire.
It reduces the chance of fires growing and limits the damage to a building and its contents.
The MP went on: “I am very mindful of the distress experienced by so many being relocated following the fall-out of the Grenfell Tower disaster; my immediate concerns were therefore about how the need for relocation would be explained and then carried out.
“Clearly this will be a very sensitive time for the people affected and many have lived there for a long period of time.”
Some of those living at Rocky Hill Terrace believe their evacuation is due to future plans by the owners of the property to cash in on the flats once they have been redeveloped.
Mrs Grant said: “Initially I did share residents’ suspicions the works may be a convenient excuse to gain vacant possession of the building prior to redevelopment into more valuable units.
“Having had the meeting I feel more reassured there isn’t an underlying ulterior motive like that and the reasons for relocation are genuine.”
An electrical fire in the basement of one of the flats started in the morning and smoke filled the ground and first floor.
Former train driver Peter Morsley has lived there for eight years and has already started packing.
The 69-year-old said: “In one way I am glad to be moving out but in another I am not because I have a lot of people I know here.
“They are moving the vulnerable ones out first. It is because of the Grenfell Tower fire this seems to have taken place.
“They said the work might take four or five years. I think they want us out because they are going to make the rooms better and sell them off.”
A three-month deadline has been set for everybody to be relocated.