Golden Lane Campus - Flood Lighting update

It seems that the plans to install flood lighting for the roof play areas of the Golden Lane Campus have come back to life.  Apparently the brightness (lux level) of the proposed lights are now included in the plans:

Click to read the whole letter

Fire Safety in Ben Jonson House

A member of the house group committee has been pressing the BEO and the City on the matter of fire safety.  Here is a response from Paul Murtagh who is the Assistant Director for Barbican Estate & Property Services.

___

Thank you for your email and my apologies for the delay in responding but, as has been explained, I have been away on leave for a few days.

May I firstly say that I certainly recall having a lengthy conversation with you at the 'drop-in' session arranged for Barbican residents following on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy. I am not aware of the 'repeated requests' that you refer to in your email that I have not responded to.

I am aware that you have regularly contacted the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and the City Corporation's (the Corporation) Fire Safety Advisor with your concerns and you have been told on each occasion that they are both satisfied with the provisions for ventilation and the passage of smoke in your block. I am advised that there is no change in their position on this matter.

I am concerned that, read in isolation, your email suggests that the Corporation is not taking its responsibilities relating to fire safety seriously and, as you are fully aware, this is not the case. We have robust processes and procedures in place to ensure, as far as possible, that the residents in our blocks on the Barbican Estate remain safe in their homes. These procedures include:

• Carrying out regular reviews of the Fire Risk Assessments (FRA's) to ensure that they remain valid, compliant and fit-for-purpose;
• Carrying out inspections of fire doors, emergency lighting and alarms and other related fire safety measures;
• Carrying out regular estate inspections to ensure that any potential fire and other safety hazards are identified and removed;
• Providing suitable and regular fire safety and fire risk assessment training for our Barbican Estate Officers, cleaners and concierge staff;
• Educating our residents and raising awareness of fire safety issues such as evacuation procedures, understanding escape routes and keeping fire escape routes on balconies and walkways clear;
• Publishing and issuing information relating to fire safety through newsletters and the web site.

As soon as we became aware of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, a number of immediate measures were taken including:

• Checks on fire escapes, emergency lighting, alarms and other fire safety measures carried out by BEO staff;
• A review of the current FRA's to review and reassess the low and medium risks identified;
• A review of the technical data on all blocks of flats with six or more floors in response to requests for information from the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG). This focused on a number of issues including the construction of the blocks and the nature and composition of any external cladding;
• Issuing a statement to all residents reminding them of fire safety advice and reassuring them that none of our residential blocks was of a similar construction to Grenfell Tower;
• Producing a new fire safety leaflet that was issued to all Barbican residents which, included information on escape routes, our review of enforcement action and what to do in the event of fire etc;
• Fire safety updates were distributed to residents via our regular bulletins including the development of a 'Frequently Asked Questions' bulletin and a dedicated Fire Safety website page.

Following a review of the fire safety processes and procedures in place at the time of Grenfell, a number of decisions were taken including:

• Commissioning specialist independent future FRA's on all our residential blocks of flats on an annual basis. Previously, in line with best practice and guidance, our policy was to commission independent FRA's every three years, with our own trained staff reviewing them annually. Frankham Risk Management Services Limited was commissioned to undertake completely new FRA's on all our residential blocks;
• Arranging a series of 'Drop-In' sessions for our residents to discuss with the Corporation's Senior Managers issues around fire safety, the Corporation's processes and procedures and its plans for improvements in fire safety in the coming months;
• The majority of entrance doors to individual properties in our blocks are original and, as such, will generally provide notional fire resistance of 15-20 minutes. Whilst there is no legal requirement to replace these doors to provide greater fire resistance, we have done so on our social housing estates as they became due for replacement. However, the decision has been taken to embark on an enhanced front door replacement programme to bring all front entrance doors to individual flats up to 60-minute fire resistance wherever possible. It is intended that our tower blocks will be given priority;
• Barbican Estate staff to respond directly to any requests for advice and guidance in relation to fire safety;
• A much firmer line is being taken with residents who are not complying with guidance on keeping walkways and fire escapes clear. 

With particular reference to the issues you raised in your email, although FRA's in all our blocks, including yours, were done in October/November 2016, we took the decision to have a much more comprehensive Type 3 FRA done on all our blocks and these were completed very recently. The FRA for Ben Jonson House does not support the issues that you have raised relating to fire safety in your block.

Whilst I expect that you will not be satisfied with my response, the Corporation takes its responsibility for the health and safety of its residents very seriously as you can see from the actions we have taken above.

Regards

Paul Murtagh BSc (Hons) MRICS
Assistant Director, Barbican Estate & Property Services
Community & Children's Services
Barbican Estate Office
3 Lauderdale Place
Barbican
London EC2Y 8EN
Tel: 020 7332 3015
Mob: 07718 969180

Fortune Park Community Fun Day

The 2018 Fortune Park Community Fun Day will be held on 30th June, in Fortune Park (of course!).

Click to enlarge

Car Park Price Rises - New BRC Proposal & Meeting

The matter of price rises for the car parks came up at the 4th June meeting of the BRC.  There was significant opposition to the proposed price rises and the BRC sent the matter back to a sub-committee for further thought.

A new set of proposals will go before the BRC on Thursday 21st June.  Here is the agenda and information pack which details the new proposals:

Click to read the whole pack

... and here is the detailed Lauderdale Tower response:

Click to read the whole Lauderdale response

June 2018 Cripplegate Ward News

The ward newsletters are out for June 2018.  They are all available from the City web site.   Here is the one for Cripplegate:

Click to read the newsletter

Notes from the BRC on June 4th

Three members of the Ben Jonson House Group committee attended the BRC meeting on the 4th June, and a big thank you to them.  Here are notes from the meeting:
___

After some discussion about the rules on who could vote and/or speak on the car park and stores charging proposals, in fact almost all the resident members did speak out querying various aspects of the proposals presented by the Working Party. Only one member of the Committee spoke strongly in support.

As I understood, it was resolved to refer it back to the Working Party to resolve the difficulties and inconsistencies. The problem is that it all needs to be resolved before the next meeting of the Court of Common Council on 21/6/18 and this time scale was much too tight for the WP to achieve a rethink. At the same time, if new stores were to be built the BEO needed to commission them very shortly so they could start to bring in income. BEO would also need to inform residents of changes in charging well in advance.

Points made by CCs were:

1. That the income from car parking and stores in the car parks should be accounted together.
2. That the expense of the CPAs should reflect the fact that they now spend a greater proportion of their time on concierge duties
3. The increased charges may result in fewer people renting and lead to further losses
4. No account had been taken of the mobility needs of older and frailer residents who may well be less able to afford increases and cannot realistically move their cars to cheaper parking elsewhere. There we're equality issues involved.
5. The security committee was not happy with security issues and if non residents were to have a different key as recommended, it would involve more work for the CPAs.
6. The proposed rents were not based on comparable spaces. The CoL run car park on London Wall was less than half the price suggested for Barbican Car Park spaces. Any increase should be based on CPI. Stores charges would be more per sq ft than for a Barbican flat.

Summing up, the new Chair, Michael Hudson, drew attention to the comparison with sum of £800 pa charged to residents by CoL at an adjacent car park, where commercial users pay more. An increase by CPI would be reasonable. Higher charges proposed were likely to lead to losses as people stopped renting. Although advice is to treat car parking and baggage store income separately, it would be more sensible to treat them as one. It was important to include an equality assessment.

Speaking for BEO, Michael Bennett asked for an immediate decision because the Stores policy had expired in March 2018.

When put to the vote the majority were in favour of referring the report back to the Working Party.

NB Mention was made of parking availability at Seraph Court EC1 for £1,300 pa and it was proposed that the Lauderdale proposal be considered.

Car Park Price Rises - The City's legal view

Here are the responses from the Comptroller and City Solicitor in respect of the questions on the Car Park Charging Policy from the Residents Consultation Committee

They can charge what they like?  Click to read the whole document.

What is the "Stock Condition Survey"?

The recent service charge estimate included a "Stock Condition Survey" item. The one liner which comes with the letter does not really make clear what it's about.

I asked the BEO for a clear description. Here is what they said:

The stock condition survey will be looking at each block as a whole, but excluding any areas where we already have stock condition information. It will include internal areas within the block but not within leasehold properties. It will include items such as, but not limited to:

• Glazing
• Window Frames
• Doors
• Communal Electrical Installations
• Balconies
• Lifts
• Roofs (limited number)
• Drainage
• Generators

There will be other areas to survey in the Car Parks and Garchey

Car Parking Spaces - No longer for sale

A resident of Ben Jonson House heard that it is no longer possible to buy a car parking space on the estate.

I asked the BEO if this is in fact the case, and if so, when this policy change happened and where is it documented?

Here is the BEO response:

Due to lack of resources within the office and a number of projects across the estate we have had to take a management decision and this option is currently unavailable. Please note residents can still rent a parking space and also have it added to their service charge account.

Objective Environmental Measures - e.g. sound

I was very excited to read on the BBC about a project in Barcelona called Smart Citizen to take objective measures of pollution, light levels and sound using an inexpensive always-on device.

I shall be seeking support to get these, or something like them, running here in the City and in particular around the estate.

Click to visit the Smart Citizen project page

p.s.  Here are some videos presenting the Smart Citizen project:

• An introduction to the device
• How the device might be used in London (from 2014)
• On TED:  a (2013!) presentation including context and examples
• A (rather over produced, perhaps) overview of the programme