Tower block collapse fears ignored over typos
BBCConcerns that a block of council flats could collapse were ignored for more than a year due to typos in an expert report, an inquiry has found.
About 400 residents were evacuated from the council-owned Barton House, Bristol, in November 2023 after surveys showed the building would be unsafe in the event of a fire, explosion or large impact.
In July 2022, Bristol City Council received a report from Ridge, a property consultancy, which warned the building was at risk of collapse. But it included multiple errors, including calling the building "Barnet House".
Council staff questioned the report's credibility based on a drafting error and did not escalate its findings to senior leaders for 16 months, the inquiry ruled.
The 29-page report concluded that the block faced "disproportionate collapse in the event of an internal gas explosion", but staff "questioned its credibility based on a drafting error".
The serious safety issues identified in the report only resurfaced in September 2023 when officers came across it when looking at future options for the building.
At this point, the council commissioned another consultancy, Arup, to review Ridge's findings. By November, Arup confirmed the safety risks - sparking the evacuation.
The extent of the delay raised questions among councillors at a recent meeting of the housing policy committee about how staff should be telling people higher up in the council about risks and "bad news", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Labour councillor Rob Logan described the delay in communicating the Ridge report to chief officers as "striking", adding: "The ability to escalate bad news is an important one, an important one in any service, but particularly in an area dealing with property risks."
The recent inquiry revealed that council staff had "poor engagement" with Ridge in understanding the risks, and no risk assessments after the report warned of collapse. The housing property division showed a "lack of focus and competence", it said, and was more focused on redeveloping the site than making sure tenants were safe.
David McNulty, the council's director of housing, said improvements had been made but there needed to be "further oversight" of the building safety board and how they manage technical reports.
As well as not being shared with councillors or council bosses, the report was also not shared with people living in Barton House who did not know about safety concerns until the evacuation.
Fadumo Farah, a housing campaigner and former Barton House tenant, said: "[The council was] putting our lives at risk while you knew that the building was not safe."
"You chose not to tell us and we remained in Barton House," she added.
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