Manchester City Council has commissioned a fire safety expert to review the cladding system on Whitebeck Court in north Manchester.
Savills will undertake a detailed survey of the building in Charlestown that will begin in the next two weeks, which will review the full rainscreen cladding system and produce a report highlighting any work they suggest needs to take place to ensure the building is as safe as possible.
The survey has been commissioned after a regular fire risk inspection found that a small number of panels on the building – 24 out of 352 – were found to be different to the panel details provided to the City Council’s building control team when refurbishment work to the building was completed around eight years ago. The panels are not the ACM-type (Aluminium Composite Material) that were installed on the Grenfell tower.
Northwards Housing who run the property have already reviewed the other high-rise properties it manages with cladding and has confirmed they are clad in a different material to Whitebeck Court.
Cllr Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “The safety of our residents is paramount to us and we take every measure to ensure people feel safe in their homes. Fire safety checks are carried out regularly to satisfy ourselves that standards are the best they can be.
“It’s important that we can reassure our residents – and ourselves – that City Council-owned properties are as safe, and so we are taking a proactive approach to regularly reviewing the rainscreen cladding on our buildings.
“By doing this survey now we can make sure that we can do anything that we need to in making Whitebeck Court as safe as possible.
“We have written to the residents of Whitebeck Court throughout the process to keep them updated and to reassure them that as we investigate the rainscreen panels on the building, they remain safe.”
