WCHG Press Statement 22/06/17
Following the tragic events from the Grenfell Fire, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) working with the Greater Manchester Fire service has conducted a comprehensive review of all ten tower blocks within Wythenshawe, Manchester.
We can confirm following early fire safety actions taken we have been able to detect that our Village 135 scheme, has been identified as having 78 feature panels which are located in a small area of the overall development, works to remove these panels will commence today.
We want to reassure all our residents we take their safety very seriously. We have robust fire safety measures in place, with a state of the art fire alarm system for early detection, 24 hour on site concierge service and all alarms are linked to a Careline system for added security.
Group Chief Executive Nigel Wilson said, “I want to reassure all our residents we take their safety very seriously. We immediately commissioned an extensive review of all our 10 tower blocks following this tragedy, which has flagged up a small area of failed panels on one scheme. We have taken immediate action and are in the process of having these panels removed and are working closely with the Local Authority and Greater Manchester Fire Brigade”.
Chair of the Board, The Bishop of Manchester, The Right Revd David Walker said, ”WCHG have reacted without delay commissioning this review, following this terrible tragedy, the safety of our residents is our first priority and immediate action is now being taken to resolve this”.
County Fire Officer of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Peter O’Reilly said, “firefighters had inspected the buildings at Village 135 in Wythenshawe and although the complex did not give them great concern, the Service would continue to liaise with the management team and developer to confirm that any cladding fitted to the outside of the buildings complies with building and fire safety regulations.
He added: “The properties appear to be of a high standard and have two means of escape from each block. Fire officers found that each block has a communal fire alarm system and the individual apartments have hard wired interlinked detection. They said the use of brick to separate the cladding systems would hinder fire spread. The combination of the passive and active fire safety measures across Village 135 appeared to our team to be sufficient to support the escape of the residents. Follow up work by Fire officers will be carried out to enhance measures to support the evacuation of persons with reduced mobility but on the whole, we’d like to reassure residents this building does not give us any great concern from a fire safety point of view.”
For further enquiries please contact the communications team on communications@wchg.org.uk
