Emergency evacuation of four south London tower blocks
By
Paul Mitchell
12 August 2017
Hundreds of families in four 13-storey blocks in Ledbury estate in Peckham, south London, have been told by the local Labour-controlled Southwark Council to leave their homes.
Residents of the 242 flats have been sent letters saying they will have to “temporarily decant the blocks over the coming weeks and months” for emergency works. Council officials do not know when they will be able to return.
The council said safety checks carried out following the Grenfell Tower fire indicate the blocks are at risk of collapse in the event of a gas explosion. Workman are now disconnecting the gas supply and residents are being given electric hotplates.
The council announced the evacuation following an investigation by engineering consultancy company Arup, which revealed that strengthening of the buildings “may not” have been carried out after the collapse as a result of a gas explosion at Ronan Point, a similarly constructed high-rise in east London, in 1968. Four people died and 17 were injured. The reinforcement of vulnerable buildings and the replacement of gas supplies by electricity were fundamental recommendations of the Griffiths Inquiry set up by Harold Wilson’s Labour Party government following the disaster.
The fact that 50 years after the disaster, Griffiths’ recommendations have been ignored at the Ledbury estate, and probably many more blocks around the country according to safety experts, is yet a further warning to those who put their faith in the Conservative government’s announced Grenfell Fire inquiry.
Southwark’s deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, Stephanie Cryan, blamed the failure to…