Oxford Mail reported on the decision to undertake fire safety work, including removing and replacing claddng, on Hockmore Tower in Cowley, with Oxford City Council reassuring tower residents that their homes ‘remain safe’. Last year, it was reported that work to replace cladding on the city’s Windrush and Evenlode blocks was nearing completion. Earlier that year, replacement works began on the two blocks after their cladding failed the government’s safety tests. The new cladding was chosen as it was ‘in line with the requirements of the updated central government guidance’, with the council’s contractors Fortem to undertake the recladding work.
The £1m project to remove and replace the cladding followed initial confusion in 2017 about whether the blocks should have been evacuated, with fire crews put on standby in case a fire started and firefighters ‘going door-to-door’ to reassure residents. The two Oxford towers were set to ‘be among the first to be completed’, with the council ‘seeking to reclaim costs’ from the government.
With the work now nearly complete on all five blocks, the council’s housing team and Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (OFRS) met with Hockmore Tower residents, with the tower described as the ‘most heavily impacted’ block. Removal of the high pressure laminate (HPL) cladding is set to be completed by January 2020, while the Headington and Blackbird Leys blocks will see ‘less significant work done’.
Simon Furlong, OFRS’s chief fire officer, confirmed to residents at the meeting that the building was safe ‘and will remain so during and after work’, adding that the building is fitted with sprinklers and heat and smoke detectors in all communal areas, as well as ‘upgraded’ fire doors, non combustible insulation underneath the HPL cladding, fire breaks within its cladding system, automatic venting systems for stairwells and ‘upgraded fire seals’ to the building’s waste chutes.
Mr Furlong added: ‘(The) five tower blocks are safe to live in. When we assess safety we look at the building in the round. Hockmore Tower – with its fire alarms, upgraded fire doors, evacuation policy and, especially, its sprinklers – far exceeds the standards required to (deem) the building safe.’
The HPL rainscreen makes up 40% of the building’s exterior façade, while the Evenlode and Windrush tower blocks in Blackbird Leys only have rain screens on balcony panels, making up ‘less than’ 10% of the facades, and their cladding has already been removed. The Foresters and Plowman towers in Headington meanwhile are clad with sheet aluminium rainscreen and non combustible insulation, with minor ‘snagging’ to be done there.
The council noted that it will ‘again seek to recover’ costs from the government, and residents ‘will not be charged’, while contractors Fortem estimated the work would take three to four months to replace the HPL. Councillor Mike Rowley, cabinet member for affordable housing, added: ‘We will not compromise on safety. We have gone above and beyond legal requirements at every stage to ensure an enhanced level of fire safety for the families living in our five tower blocks. We are acting quickly to remove and replace the cladding.’
Jonathan O’Neill, managing director of the Fire Protection Association, commented: ‘Combustible cladding has no place on any building and must be removed immediately. No question. It’s a proven fire risk and residents need certainty about the safety of their homes.’