Bristol Greens celebrate the opportunity to break the promises they made to people
More burning wreckage from a crash landing Green election pledge.
Before last year’s election, the line was that the Greens would cancel, within six months, the lease to the evangelical nutters promoting gay conversion therapy at Eagle House in Knowle West and restore it as a youth centre.
A letter from Green leader “Tory” Tony Dyer now announces that there are no legal grounds for cancelling this lease because, presumably, using a council building for unlawful gay conversion therapy activities is fine? Instead, we get the building back when the lease expires in May 2026.
It then will be demolished and the land sold for housing because the evangelical nutters have broken the lease by not doing repairs on the building and letting it fall into disrepair.
Some sort of consultation on some sort of vague community building idea will happen after the demolition but getting anything in place before 2030 seems unlikely.
Great news for young people in Knowle.
How many pledges have Bristol Green Party broken in a year?
Rehouse Barton House residents – LIE Yew Tree Farm to be protected – LIE Reopen Public Loos – LIE SEND spying investigation – LIE
What a concerning (but unsurprising) mess this Barton House disaster is:
1. When building professionals assess a commercial building’s condition we – in my work life experience – work on an expected ‘life’ of 60 years.
2. Commercial organisations and public bodies with corporate manslaughter / public safety accountability have a duty of care. They therefore would want to evidence they had carried out regular (no more than 5 years apart in my experience) condition surveys to assess cyclical maintenance need / cost rate and ‘life remaining’ of the structure and fabric.
3. When end of life was approaching, they would want to commence contingency plans to replace the building OR (preferably) assess what is needed to retain it in a safe condition for x more years, allowing for planned major spend as necessary. It’s called good building management, professional responsibility and life cycle estate planning! Oh! And duty of care!
4. In the NHS, in my experience working for multiple NHS Trusts, we (every NHS organisation) were mandated to have a Major Incident Plan (MIP) for everything we could conceivably expect to go wrong (yup, including a pandemic) and have a ‘plan’ in place. This would be documented, regularly updated and occasionally acted out along with major responders. A real example being a suspected bomb being unearthed in work around the Haymarket leading to the wholescale evacuation of the BRI. I wonder what the BCC MIP was for a Grenfell etc type disaster?
4). The above said, 3 questions:
A. If a similarly constructie (I believe, I’m still investigating) building started to collapse (Ronan Point) in 1968, 10 yrs after Barton House was constructed, I’d assume VERY regular surveys would be carried out to asses and determine any movement or other concerns. If something went wrong, you would want to assure the public, the courts etc that you were on top of the issues and ‘managing’ one’s estate to assure of being in control, of professional estate management competence.
B. On a 60 year expected life this building was past its expected life in 2018. So what’s happened since? What was documented as BCC’s ‘plan’ for Barton House?
C) How many other Large Panel System (LPS) exist in Bristol? Or indeed around the country?
One has to conclude that it appears, from current revelations, that BCC has not / is not competently managing its estate which, after experiences such as Ronan, Grenfall etc, is a grave public concern.
FOIs will be submitted as above. Those poor tenants / occupants deserve so much better especially from a council which has introduced a licensing system to ensure private landlords provide adequate safe accommodation.
Council tower block, Barton House in Barton Hill was urgently evacuated last night due to mysterious “structural issues” that emerged, apparently, out of nowhere. And it hasn’t taken long for private sector vultures to spot a lucrative business opportunity. This email was sent to councillors today:
From: Carole Wingrove <CWingrove@lsh.co.uk> Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 4:12:19 PM To: Carole Wingrove <CWingrove@lsh.co.uk> Subject: Barton House Bristol – Assistance with Alternative Accommodation
Dear Councillor,
We are sorry to hear of the challenge at Barton House in Bristol where 400 residents were evacuated as a precautionary measure while inspections are carried out.
We understand temporary rest centres have been equipped for residents in need.
I wanted to reach out to offer our assistance should you need temporary accommodation for residents who have not been able to stay with family or friends or if, for any reason residents are unable to return for a period of time.
Please let us know should you need assistance, our team of relocation experts are here to help. We have relocated over 100,000 people into cost effective alternative accommodation since 1999.
We would also like to offer the renowned and trusted expert Lambert Smith Hampton service as one of many solutions for the Temporary and Emergency Housing crisis that is gripping councils across the UK.
We understand today, there are about 575 social housing blocks that used Large Panel System as a construction method in England. According to Tower Blocks UK, this was used widely in the post-war housing boom and there have been problems on many different council estates, leading to residents being moved out and buildings demolished.
Whilst this is only speculative at Barton House, we understand there are other social housing blocks, Charleton House, John Cozens House, Haviland House and Langton House in Bristol.
Our expert teams of Asset and Property Management alongside procurement services include:
Leasing stock for short to long term requirements (which could comprise individual housing units or property suitable for conversion)
Entering into JV with a housing delivery partner
Innovative Pod and Grey Site accommodation
Acquisition or development of new stock
Emergency Pre-Funded Decant and relocation solutions
