High-rise safety must be highest priority

Today’s revelation about fire safety standards at high rise tower blocks in Tayside and Fife will make troubling reading for the hundreds of residents who call these buildings home.

A special investigation by The Courier has found materials used in the cladding of the Dudhope multi-storey block and at eight of the 12 towers across Fife fail to meet standards recommended by the Scottish Government’s own experts.

The combustible high pressure laminate cladding used in Dundee has been linked to a 2009 blaze in London, which killed six people.

Like the Fife blocks, it meets the British equivalent of a European safety class B rating, while other Scottish councils with high-rises favour the top European standard A1 rated cladding, which is non-combustible.

There is nothing to suggest that residents in the properties are in any immediate danger.

However, a Scottish Government-appointed working group, set up in the wake of the Grenfell fire disaster in London, concluded that multi-storey blocks should come with a rating of A2 or better and that authorities should switch to the more rigorously tested European safety standard within two years.

Cosla insists all councils take their community safety role very seriously. Fine words, but firm action will do more to reassure residents in Fife and Dundee.