Building Safety Strategy

 The BEO have sent out the Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy for Ben Jonson House:

Click to read

BEO offer to support carers during the coronavirus epidemic

From the BEO:
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Dear Residents

We are aware of residents setting up a number of efforts to try and co-ordinate support for older people on the estate at this time of need. Some of this via House Groups and some more localised and independent.

We, at the estate office, would like to be able to signpost residents to local assistance. We also thought we might be able to help with paper based communications.

If the leads of these groups could get in contact, it would direct the flow of communications and better help the effort.

Please send any details of local leads to:- Nabeela.ahmad@cityoflondon.gov.uk

(In all likelihood we will be sharing this information.)

Thank you
Nabeela

Burst Water Main

A burst water main in the Beech St tunnel is flooding the sub-basements below the car parks.  Emergency repair works are expected to continue throughout the night.

Digging into the night

Alex Novoa appeal update

The fundraising for the family of Alex Novoa  is going well.  The total as I write has just topped £2,500.

https://www.gofundme.com/the-family-of-alexander-novoa-rip

In addition to making very generous contributions, people have been asking me for information about how Alex's family are doing.  I don't have a great deal of detail, and really I don't want to ask too much at this time.  I communicate with Claudia by email, and the conversation is mainly about making sure the funds are accessible for her.

I contacted Claudia via the BEO after the house group decided we should try to help.  Claudia and I have not met in person, but Claudia has visited the BEO.  I know that the main concern at the moment is the cost of the funeral.  I understand there is no insurance or other cover there to help the family with this cost, but in addition to the GoFundMe campaign Claudia has received some help from other sources.  I don't have detailed accounts or anything like that, but my understanding is the cost of the funeral will be about £4,000 and the other sources provided something like £1,200.  This means that the very generous contributions to the GoFundMe are filling a critical gap.

Claudia has sent me many thank you emails, so let me pass the sentiment on to everyone who has chipped in.

The BEO have included an item about the fundraising for Alex and a link in the latest weekly bulletin.  Here is the text of that item:

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Alex Go Fund me Page
The Ben Jonson House Group have started a 'Go Fund Me' page for Alex Novoa, the cleaner at Ben Jonson House who passed away on 17 October.

Alex leaves behind his wife Claudia and three young children.They are all in our thoughts at this terribly sad time.

If you would like to contribute please click here, or alternatively ask for an House Officer at the Estate Office reception to contribute in person.

Helping the family of Alexander Novoa

The house group has received a number of queries asking if they can help the recently bereaved family of Alexander Novoa.  I have set up a gofundme campaign with the aim of helping the family with immediate financial needs, for example the funeral.

https://www.gofundme.com/the-family-of-alexander-novoa-rip

Please do share the link around.  I'm sure Caludia would welcome all the help she can get.

Click to visit the funding web site

City of London home fire safety leaflet

The City have produced a new fire safety leaflet.  The leaflet repeats the information sent out in June.

Click to read the leaflet

The estate office sent out the leaflet along with a letter from the estate manager.

Latest fire safety advice from the BEO

Latest fire safety advice from the BEO:
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Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning, our thoughts are with the people caught up in this terrible tragedy.

Naturally, residents in our blocks of flats will be concerned as to whether something like this could happen to them.

The cause of the fire is being investigated and, although there is some speculation, it is likely to be some time before the actual cause of the fire is known.

In response to the concerns of our residents, we would like to reassure you that we do everything that we can to ensure, as far as possible, that our residents remain safe in their homes. With particular regard to the risk of fire, we undertake and implement a number of pro-active improvement measures including:

• Recently completed new Fire Risk Assessments compiled by an external contractor on all of our blocks
• Carrying out regular reviews of Fire Risk Assessments to ensure they remain valid and 'fit for purpose'
• Carrying out annual inspections of all the balconies to ensure that the fire escape routes are clear
• Carrying out regular inspections of fire doors and other fire safety measures
• Carry out regular estate inspections to ensure that any potential fire and other safety hazards are identified and removed
• Giving our estate staff ongoing training on fire risk management;

If you have any immediate concerns about possible hazards on your estate, please report these to your House Officer straight away.

We will clearly continue to monitor progress with the investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire to understand the cause of the fire and any implications this may have for us in relation to the safety and integrity of our own homes.

With regard to the Barbican Estate, the advice from the Fire Brigade is as follows:-

The Barbican has been built to protect you in the event of a fire, so do not automatically assume you must leave your flat. The emergency services will decide whether the building needs to be evacuated. If it does, use your front door and stairs unless the fire/smoke prevents this, in which case use your balcony.

Basic advice

Familiarise yourself with the escape route from your flat before an emergency. For most flats this is using a staircase (NEVER A LIFT) or your balcony.

Keep all emergency access routes clear: your life or those of your family or neighbours could be endangered if you do not. Large plants or furniture should not be stored on balconies for this reason.

If the fire is in your flat:

• Do not stay to fight a fire unless you can extinguish it immediately. 
• Evacuate everyone in the flat. 
• Close all doors behind you. 
• Call the Fire Brigade. 
• Call your Lobby Porter/Car Park Concierge. 

If you detect a fire in another part of your building:

• Stay in your home unless evacuated by emergency services. 
• Call the Fire Brigade, do not tackle the fire yourself. 
• Close all doors and windows to restrict the spread of smoke. 
• If you become affected by the heat or smoke, leave the flat, as described above. 

There have been very few fires on the Barbican Estate. Most have started in kitchens so residents may wish to keep a kitchen extinguisher or fire blanket nearby.

The London Fire Brigade will carry out a fire safety check.

http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/HomeFireSafetyVisit.asp

If in doubt, ask us.

General advice for fire prevention

• It is worthwhile investing in a smoke alarm. The battery should be renewed each year to ensure the alarm is working effectively. 
• Avoid calor gas, paraffin or electric bar fires wherever possible. Instead use plug in radiators with safety electric plugs. 
• Do not block access points in your flat or the communal areas of your block. 
• Do not use rooms for storage or as workshops. 
• Do not overload electrical sockets, cover convector heaters or leave lit candles and heaters close to curtains and furniture. 
• Ensure electrical equipment is regularly serviced. 
• Do not throw cigarette ends off your balcony. 
• Do not prop open fire doors. 

Ward Fire Safety meeting: Mon 26th June 19:00 Golden Lane Centre

From Barbican Talk, a meeting about fire safety in Cripplegate.  For reference, the current guidance for fire safety in Ben Jonson House is here.

This meeting was already scheduled but, understandably, the agenda has been changed ...
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Your Cripplegate Councillors (David Barker, Mark Bostock, Mary Durcan, Vivienne Littlechild, Sue Pearson. Will Pimlott, Steve Quilter and John Tomlinson) together with Alderman David Graves are holding a meeting on Monday 26th June at 7pm at Golden Lane Community Centre to meet residents of Golden Lane and the Barbican.

This is your opportunity to meet your Common Councilmen, find out what they have been doing and for you to tell them what you think.

Terence Short, City of London Fire Safety Advisor, will speak on fire safety on our estates.

Please join us and make your views known.

Mary Durcan

Click to zoom in

Please keep fire exits clear

It is really important to keep fire exits clear.

Please don't do this

Please keep fire exits clear

It is really important to keep fire exits clear.

Please don't do this

Please keep fire exits clear

A sharp eyed reader spotted several items left in one of the building fire exits:

Please don't do this

I'm joking about the sharp eyed bit, but it would be no joke at all if someone with mobility problems, or a mum with a child were desperate to get out of the building in a fire and ran into this.

Fire exits are not storage areas.  Please never treat them as storage areas.

Easter Sunday emergency gas work

The "nationalgrid" people told me that having located a gas leak by drilling boreholes over the last few days, it became essential to dig up the road on Easter Sunday morning at 09:30.

Here they are, dealing with the emergency:

Easter holes

Our CPAs

CPA is an abbreviation of Car Park Attendant, but our Breton & Ben Jonson CPAs do much more for us than just look after the car park.   Our CPAs also act as our building concierge, looking after visitors and also looking after the flood of Internet driven parcels (a deluge at Christmas time!).  Our CPAs also look after our security, they walk the building to help keep it secure and in good order, and they are also there if we need help with a noisy neighbour or if we need emergency assistance.

From time to time the City floats the idea of saving money by removing our CPAs, but each time this has happened the City has been reminded how highly they are valued.

Currently our CPAs are:

Paul Nixon
Dinesh Pereira
Israel Lawson
Peter Jones

If you need to call them:

Office - 0207 029 3938
Mobile - 0778 537 1832

Balcony Fire Escape Inspections

Our balconies are fire escapes  We get to enjoy them when there is no fire, but if there ever is a fire it's really important that people are able escape, so every year the BEO check the escape routes ...

It really is important

Bike Racks Removed

Almost exactly a year ago fire safety officers told us that the bike racks immediately to the north of the spiral ramp (at the eastern (Waitrose) end of Ben Jonson House) could be a hazard in the event of an evacuation of Ben Jonson House and we asked that they be removed.

And now, a couple of years after they appeared, and after some nudging of City Officials in the Arts Centre, they are gone:

Gone

Cycle Racks & Fire Safety update

The house group wrote to the Town Clark to see if he could break the 3 way departmental log-jam which was preventing the fire safety issue with the cycle racks being resolved.

Well, there has been some good progress.  A message from the office of the Town Clerk:

Further your email, Mr Barradell followed this up with the various officers involved and I can confirm that the Barbican Centre are arranging to remove the cycle racks in question. Mr Barradell has asked for confirmation of a scheduled date for completion of these works and I will come back to you with this once it has been confirmed to me.

I'll put an update on the blog when I hear the dates or spot that the bike racks have gone.

Cycle Racks & Fire Safety

As noted last April, the bike racks at the northern side of the spiral ramp to Whitecross St present a hazard in the event of an evacuation of Ben Jonson House, for example in the event of a fire.  The problem is that anyone in a wheelchair or with a pram would not be able to pass freely and so would block the escape route for everyone behind them.

The house group committee has been chasing this with various parts of the City but to no effect.  The BEO say it's not their issue and that they have raised it with the Arts Centre (who paid to have the racks installed), we are told that the Arts Centre thought the BEO would do the work and the City Surveyors department say there is no money.  From our point of view it seems that each of these parts of the City just bounce the matter to the next.

The City Surveyors have pointed out that the racks went through the full planning process before being installed and that anyone could have raise the fire safety issue during that process.  This may be true, and it is unfortunate that nobody, not even the City Surveyors realised there was a fire safety risk with the racks, but now we do know there is a fire safety problem it needs to be fixed.

The fix could take the form of a ramp a meter or so to the west of the racks allowing people on wheels to get down from the pavement to the vehicle exit lane to the service yard or the removal of the racks, but something needs to happen.

To try and break the logjam between the various parts of the City we will contact the Town Clerk.  He is the only common boss for the three City entities involved in this matter.

It may look like there is enough room for prams and wheelchairs in the following photo, but it looks very different when many bikes are locked to the racks.

When bikes use these racks no wheelchair or pram can get past.

Cycle Racks on Whitecross St.

A comment was added to the recent post about house officer actions to say that the point raised about the cycle racks was not clear, so here is a photo and a bit of explanation.

Here they are

Fire safety officers and officials from accessibility groups agree that the new racks could pose a problem for prams and wheelchair users in the event of an emergency evacuation of Ben Jonson House.

There are a number of things which could be done about it, but the fire safety officer is firmly of the view that *something* must be done.

This is what our house officer is chasing for us.

Fire Exits - please don't block them

Builders waste was left in both the north and south fire exits from staircase 63, level 3.  The waste was left overnight, disabling the exits until our cleaners found and removed the waste the following morning.

It looked like waste from a bathroom refit.

Please don't do this

What to do in a fire emergency

See the City of London Fire Safety Advice page. 

The advice from the Fire Brigade is as follows:-

The Barbican has been built to protect residents in the event of a fire, so do not automatically assume you must leave your flat. The emergency services will decide whether the building needs to be evacuated. If it does, use your front door and stairs unless the fire/smoke prevents this, in which case use your balcony.

Basic Advice

Familiarise yourself with the escape route from your flat before an emergency. For most flats this is using a staircase (NEVER A LIFT) or your balcony.

Keep all emergency access routes clear: your life or those of your family or neighbours could be endangered if you do not. Large plants or furniture should not be stored on balconies for this reason.

If the fire is in your flat:

• Do not stay to fight a fire unless you can extinguish it immediately. 
• Evacuate everyone in the flat. 
• Close all doors behind you. 
• Call the Fire Brigade.
• Call your Lobby Porter/Car Park Attendant.

If you detect a fire in another part of your building:

• Stay in your home unless evacuated by emergency services. 
• Call the Fire Brigade, do not tackle the fire yourself.
• Close all doors and windows to restrict the spread of smoke. 
• If you become affected by the heat or smoke, leave the flat, as described above.

There have been very few fires on the Barbican Estate. Most have started in kitchens so residents may wish to keep a kitchen extinguisher or fire blanket nearby.

The London Fire Brigade will carry out a fire safety check, see contact list.

If in doubt, ask the BEO.

General Advice for Fire Prevention

• It is worthwhile investing in a smoke alarm. The battery should be renewed each year to ensure the alarm is working effectively.
• Avoid calor gas, paraffin or electric bar fires wherever possible. Instead use plug in radiators with safety electric plugs.
• Do not block access points in your flat or the communal areas of your block. 
• Do not use rooms for storage or as workshops. 
• Do not overload electrical sockets, cover convector heaters or leave lit candles and heaters close to curtains and furniture.
• Ensure electrical equipment is regularly serviced.

The car park attendants all have details about the emergency service access points.

There are no smoke alarms in the communal corridors.  Building Regs at the time would probably not have enforced this.

Residents are advised to install their own smoke alarms and test this regularly. BEO install smoke alarms for City of London tenants, and we renew the batteries regularly.