Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘Shame the developers to install sprinklers’
Developers in Canterbury should be shamed into installing sprinklers in multi-storey housing blocks following the devastating Grenfell Tower blaze, it was argued this week.
Lib Dem city councillor Mike Dixey is leading calls for the council to pressure builders into fitting extra fire safety measures after the blaze in West London claimed at least 79 lives.
His campaign gathered speed this week as it emerged developers rebuilding the fire-hit Tannery estate in Canterbury ignored the council’s pleas to install sprinklers, despite insisting the safety of tenants is their “number one priority”
But authority bosses admit they are powerless to force developers to compulsorily install sprinklers, saying they cannot overwrite national building regulations.
Cllr Dixey met city council chief executive Colin Carmichael and fellow party leaders to discuss building safety on Monday, five days after the Grenfell Tower blaze and just two weeks before the second anniversary of the Tannery estate fire, which saw flames rip through 30 timberframed flats in a block not fitted with sprinklers.
Despite how quickly the flames spread, the homes are currently being rebuilt to the exact same specification. Cllr Dixey said this week: “The council may not have powers to enforce the fitting of sprinklers when granting planning permission for multi-storey timber-framed buildings, but they can exert huge pressure on developers to fit them.
“They can make it a very strong recommendation that sprinklers are installed, and record this on the planning permission document. This will be seen by the solicitors acting for purchasers of houses or flats in the development.
“They should also make it clear that they will issue a press release every time a developer ignores this advice, expressing regret that the council’s advice has not been followed and the safety of its citizens is being put at risk.”
Town & Country Housing owns the Tannery flats at Creine Mill Lane North. It is rebuilding them according to the original design and confirmed this week that it is not installing sprinklers.
Cllr Dixey added: “I am stunned they are not doing this.
“The chief fire officer stated that if the fire had been in the middle of the night instead of early afternoon there would almost certainly have been loss of life.”
The blaze in the Tannery erupted at just after 2pm on Saturday, July 4, 2015.
Smoke was initially seen billowing from a first floor window and the residents were quickly evacuated. But as firefighters began to arrive, the fire swept through the rest of the building with smoke visible across the city.
It was the worst fire Canterbury had witnessed since the Courts furniture store at the foot of New Dover Road was destroyed in 2004.
Afterwards, extra fire alarms were installed in flats across the development.
But barmaid Sophie Tupman, 23, who lives in the Tannery with her boyfriend, believes this is not enough.
She said: “I moved in a year after the fire, but like everyone else in Canterbury I was only too aware of what happened there.
“The fire at Grenfell Tower and the fact they’re close to rebuilding the block here means we’re