Preston flats to be demolished over fire safety fears
Officials are worried about the cladding covering them
Two blocks of flats on the outskirts of Preston city centre are set to be flattened amid concerns about the flammability of the cladding that covers them.
The buildings – on Hopwood Street, off Ringway – have already been vacated and the dozens of social housing tenants who occupied them rehomed.
Community Gateway Association (CGA), the landlord for the four-storey properties – which each house 15 flats – has told Preston City Council it plans to pull them down.
High Pressure Laminate (HPL) coloured cladding which was installed on the front and back of the blocks around 18 years ago. Although not as flammable as the Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) that caused the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 – in which 81 people died – concerns have also been raised about HPL.
It was the type of cladding present at the site of the Lackanal House blaze in Southwark in 2009 – which killed six – and the non-fatal fire that quickly consumed The Cube student tower block in Bolton a decade later.
CGA said in planning documents lodged with the city council that, “following a fire risk assessment, it was evident that we would need to replace the cladding with something more suitable”.
The housing provider added that the cost of the required refurbishment “made the buildings uneconomical to repair”.
It was estimated at the turn of the decade that HPL could be attached to tens of thousands of buildings beneath the 18-metre height threshold that determined qualification for a government support scheme to remedy cladding-related safety risks.
CGA told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it did not yet have a blueprint for the future of the site once the buildings have been levelled.
Stephen Galbraith, the organisation’s head of development and regeneration, said: “The flats failed to meet the standards we require to provide high-quality homes. We hope that residents in the area, many of them Community Gateway tenants, are relieved to see the blocks being removed.
“Moving forward, we will be exploring the potential that this piece of land offers. While there are no firm plans to redevelop the land currently, we will keep residents informed about any future proposals.
“Demolition work is progressing well and will be completed soon. We would like to thank the local community for their patience and understanding during the demolition process.”
Work on the demolition is being carried out by Preston-based I&R Demolition Ltd..
Although different types of HPL have different levels of fire resistance, the standard grade was at the heart of an aborted test scenario back in 2020 when temperatures in what became a rapidly-spreading inferno topped 700 degrees Celsius.