Posted 16.11.20
Lambeth Council: Further reading
Officers have served an improvement notice on the owners of Norwich House Apartments, requiring a list of remedial actions - including the removal of aluminium composite material (ACM), the type of cladding used at Grenfell Tower.
The block was originally offices, but has been converted into flats. It houses 103 flats over six storeys, with commercial units on the ground floor.
A council inspection in August identified "serious and significant fire safety deficiencies", including the presence of ACM cladding shown to be the highest risk (category 3).
Inspectors also reported issues with the building's fire safety systems, service cupboards being used to store combustible materials, an insufficiently protected 7th-storey boiler room and a malfunctioning smoke extraction system.
The Norwich House owners and their management company were alerted to the problems, and told of swift improvements they were expected to make, related to the CCTV system, smoke alarms and smoke extraction, and their evacuation strategy.
The council has now served an improvement notice on the owners of Norwich House, following consultation with the London Fire Brigade, setting out the action needed to make the building safe.
The owners will need to remove the ACM cladding within a year, but the other works will be required within four months.
The owners have reported that they have appointed a firm of fire engineers, that they have repaired the smoke extraction system and are working on the CCTV and fire alarms.
They have also informed the council that they plan to remove the cladding with financial help from the Government's ACM remediation fund.
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