Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘It’s putting profit before safety of Tannery families’
Anger over firm’s refusal to install sprinklers
The property firm rebuilding firehit homes on the Tannery estate is being accused of “putting profits over tenants’ safety” as it continues to refuse to install sprinklers in the new block.
City councillors last week unanimously agreed to deliver a message to Town and Country Housing that its decision to ignore calls for the extra safety measure is “unacceptable”.
A blaze ripped through the block at the Tannery on the afternoon of July 4, 2015, destroying 45 flats and the property inside them. Miraculously, no one was hurt.
Westgate ward councillor Mike Dixey has been leading the calls over safety in the building since before the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which claimed at least 80 lives when the west London block caught fire on the night of June 14.
The Lib Dem group leader told Thursday’s meeting of the full council: “The fire two years ago in the Tannery development was in the early afternoon. Fortunately, everyone escaped without serious injury.
“If it had been at night, like the fire at Grenfell Tower, the outcome might have been very different. The chief fire officer stated that there would almost certainly have been loss of life.
“What is certain is that Town and Country is putting its profit before the safety of their tenants.
“We must send a clear unambiguous message that its behaviour is completely unacceptable.”
National building regulations dictate that local authorities can recommend, but not force, developers to install sprinklers in their buildings.
Town and Country has said that before that it had considered and rejected the installation of sprinklers and had fully complied with building regulations.
Cllr Dixey added: “They are hiding behind the building regulations, which most people in the industry recognise as being completely inadequate. It is inevitable that these regulations will be changed in the next year or two in the light of Grenfell Tower.
“Their current approach is to fit a few more smoke detectors. This is woefully inadequate. Experience at this and other fires in multi-storey timberframed buildings is that a fire can rip through a building in a few minutes.”
Town and Country has refused to comment until it formally receives the city council’s message.
Last month, when asked about the safety measures being installed, it said the Tannery building was “low rise” and that the system of fire alarms in the block would be “more than sufficient for this type of building”.
It added that it continued to invest in fire detection systems and that “the safety of our tenants, their families and homes is our number one priority”.