Grenfell Tower-style cladding on student flats to be removed

GRENFELL-STYLE cladding on student flats in Cardiff is finally set to be removed more than three years after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Lumis Student Living, in Tyndall Street, is clad with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, similar to that which caused the rapid spread of the tower block fire in 2017.

Cladding is attached to a building as an external rainscreen, to prevent water from getting into walls. But after the fire, which killed 72 people, concerns were raised over how combustible some cladding is.

Work to remove the combustible ACM cladding on the two apartment blocks of 602 beds run by Lumis will soon begin, after Cardiff council granted planning permission for the works.

Builders will replace the ACM cladding with non-combustible, solid aluminium cladding, the same colour as currently.

Viridis Real Estate Services only applied for planning permission for the works on July 13. The council granted permission two weeks later.

Questions to Viridis Real Estate regarding how long the works will take, and why the plans have only now come forward – more than three years after the Grenfell Tower fire – were left unanswered.

James Hansel, a council planning officer, said in a report that the changes were needed “due to concerns over the combustibility of the existing cladding”.

He added no consultation took place or formal publicity about the cladding, “given the minor nature of the proposal”.