Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services, updating Members on the progress that has been made in relation to fire safety matters since the last update reports submitted to the various Committees in July, September and November 2017.

Frankham Risk Management Services Limited has been commissioned to carry

out new FRAs for each of our residential blocks. These new FRAs will be very

detailed and will cover not only those areas previously inspected, but also any

further concerns raised since the Grenfell Tower fire.

Previous FRAs carried out on the City Corporation’s residential blocks have been

Type 1 FRAs as required by legislation. The new FRAs are Type 3 FRAs, which

go beyond the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005,

covering everything required for a Type 1 FRA but also providing for an

assessment of the arrangements for means of escape and fire detection (that is,

smoke alarms) within a sample of the flats (typically around 10%). A Type 3 FRA

is non-destructive but the fire resistance of doors to rooms and compartmentation

within the flat is considered. The survey work on the new FRAs for our social housing estates is now complete and will be reported to Committee in due course.

Following discussions with representatives of the London Fire Brigade (LFB), an

Action Plan has been developed and implemented to ensure the safety of

residents in Great Arthur House. The Action Plan includes:

· the installation of a communal fire alarm system as a temporary measure

until a permanent hard-wired fire alarm system can be installed

· the delivery, and installation where required, of individual smoke detectors

to all flats in Great Arthur House

· the introduction of a ‘Waking Watch’, a team of four security staff

patrolling the building at all times, whose role is to alert residents in the

event of a fire and to assist in any evacuation process

· the introduction of an evacuation process for residents in the event of a

fire.

Implementation of the above measures will be sufficient to give the City

Corporation time to address the compartmentation issues. Once the

compartmentation issues have been rectified, it is intended that the ‘stay put

policy’ will be reintroduced.

Officers have recently commenced a review of the estate walkabouts and checks,

with a view to improving consistency and monitoring, and to introducing an

automated system for recording data and follow-up actions

RESOLVED:  That the members noted the report