Tower blocked
Government won’t reveal location of high rises in danger
The Scottish Government has refused to reveal the locations of tower blocks which could have deadly combustible cladding – claiming it’s not in the public interest.
Fears have been expressed about the safety of panels on the outside of hundreds of homes, hospitals and schools across the country since the deadly Grenfell Tower inferno in London four years ago.
But when asked to state where they are, officials have refused.
In August we revealed inspections had begun on 25 high r ises in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow with a v iew to removing any dangerous cladding found.
Housing campaigners then requested the locations of the high rises, under Freedom Of Information. But in their response last week, Gai l Clapton, of the Scott ish Government ’ s Cladding Remediation Unit, said the data was exempted as it had been suppl ied to them in confidence.
She added: “The information was provided voluntarily and disclosure would, or would be l i kely to, substant ial ly prejudice the interests of the person who provided the information.
“We recognise that there is public interest in release because of understandable concerns over home safety.
“However, this is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the privacy of individuals who provided personal information.”
The Scottish Government had launched the Single Building Assessment (SBA) scheme to identify buildings which have dangerous cladding. They had previously refused requests from the Sunday Mail to name the 25 residential blocks of f lats, giving no reason.
One of the properties is in Aberdeen, eight a re in Edinburgh and 16 in Glasgow.
Sean Clerkin, campaign co- ordinator of the Scottish Tenants Organisation, said he would be appeal ing the decision not to name them. He added: “To refuse my request for the locations of the 25 buildings is a betrayal of their tenants and homeowners.
“The bereaved families of the Grenfel l tragedy have repeatedly stated that the authorities must be open, transparent and accountable when it comes to combustible cladding, and the Scottish Government are fai l ing miserably with this decision.
“The public have the right to know what bui ldings are dangerous and need their cladding removed.”
A total of 393 buildings in Scotland are known to have the highly combustible high pressure laminate (HPL).
In addition to the 95 tower block s , 27 col leges or universities, 244 state schools, nine private schools,s, f ive hospitals, one prison,n, f ive hotels and seven care homes omes have the same panels.
A fur ther 23 tower wer blocks have combustible ble p o l y e t h y l e n e ACM M cladding of the type found nd in Grenfell Tower.
Any repair costs on fireretrap buildings will be metet as part of a £ 97millionn UK Government funding package. ckage.
A Scottish Government nment spokesman said: “To protect the privacy of residents, s, we will not be providing g the exact addresses of the e properties currently involved d in the Single Building Assess- ment programme, but have e provided the local authority y area.
“Applications to participate in the programme were from homeowners’ associations or representatives on their behalf... once funding has been secured for a Single Building Assessment, owners are informed that they are part of the SBA process.”
The public have to the right know what s are building us dangero