Agenda item

Presented by Paul Coffey, Interim Head of Fire & Building Safety.

Pamela Leonce entered the virtual meeting at 6.42pm.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Interim Head of Fire & Building Safety to address the Panel. The Interim Head of Fire & Building Safety conducted a presentation to the Panel, which can be found via the following link: https://civico.net/croydon/meetings

In response to questions from Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:

·       The Interim Head of Fire and Building Safety mentioned that he would be happy to participate in estate walkabouts with residents.

·       Key information would be put on the noticeboards before the door checks take place in relevant blocks.

·       Risk assessment would be undertaken, and the information from the risk assessment would be reviewed with how improvements could be made on all the blocks.

·       The image of the right-hand side of Slide 9 (page 21 of the agenda) showed a combustible item left on the escape route and that would be classed as something that the team had to get done straight away.

·       The team has a duty to document asbestos in the communal areas. Information is also available for the staff and contractors in relation to the presence of asbestos on the IT system.

·       The team has 100% of asbestos management information for communal areas. If attending to a fire, the London Fire Brigade would assume the presence of asbestos when dealing with properties built before 2000.

·       The duty under the new Building Safety Regulation is that all front entrance doors of flats over 11 meters have to be checked. While the main entrance door does not need to be a fire door it must be secured to protect people.

·       The team was reviewing the fire strategy for older buildings that have only one entrance/exit door. The team would review the current fire strategy for these buildings and recommend improvements if the strategy required updating. It was emphasised that blocks with one exit were not necessarily unsafe.

·       The team would evaluate the risks for the whole property portfolio and prioritise properties according to their risk profile. As part of this work the team would review risk assessments and actions. A delivery plan would be created to pick up all actions.

·       The timeframe for responsive repairs is 28 days.

·       There were currently around 220 overdue responsive repairs.

·       Repair inspectors had been joining housing officers on estate inspections. If there were specific fire or building safety issues, the fire and building safety team could accompany the repair inspectors to join the inspections.

·       The team has a duty under new regulation to put together the building safety cases. Buildings would be prioritised from the risk assessments.

·       Risk assessments are conducted based on various categories of the buildings. 

·       The team would review our 45 high-rise, 544 medium-rise and 204 low-rise blocks.

·       The Fire and Building Safety Team was focused on adhering to the Regulations. The team would recruit additional staff as a part of the plan to better the service.

·       Fire safety risk assessments were outsourced. Officers were confident that the fire and building safety team was well-staffed.

·       The officer responsible for the asbestos register and lifts is the Head of Property Compliance.

·       The Interim Head of Fire and Building Safety had already visited 10 high-rise buildings and the predecessor completed around another 40 buildings. Procurement for a specialist contractor to undertake works was underway.

·       Engagement meetings with residents would be organised to walk through the buildings and look at the problems collectively after the establishment of the new process.

·       Information about the storing and risk of e-scooters would be posted on the website for residents.

·       The Fire and Building Safety Team was working closely with Housing Management Team as a part of the improvement process.

·       All estates inspections should be advertised. Residents and councillors were invited to the inspections. The inspections were advertised on the noticeboards on relevant estates.

·       The caretaker should be able to test the lights. The team would ensure this to be included in the estate’s inspection update.

Members of the Panel NOTED this presentation.