Fire safety Freedom of Information requests

REQUEST:

1. A list of buildings that your authority has ordered to be covered in cladding from January 1, 2010 to present.

By 'ordered' I mean cases where a contract was signed by the authority that contained a clause for buildings to be covered in cladding.

For each building, please provide:

a) the address

b) the postcode

c) the type of material used in the cladding, in particular whether it used a polyethylene or polyurethane core

d) the date on which the contract was signed off

RESPONSE:

It has been assumed on the basis of the author's references to the 'core' of the cladding that this FOI request relates specifically to the specification and application of Rain Screen Cladding panels such as Aluminium Composite Materials to buildings.

The Housing Service within Perth & Kinross has no properties that have been covered with Rain Screen Cladding / Aluminium Composite Materials or any other kind of Insulated metal Cladding Panel.

The Council does, however, have houses (mainly one and two storey semi-detached, terraced or 'four-in-a-block' homes) that have been retrospectively fitted with externally applied wall insulation since January 2010.

All of these houses have been fitted with materials that are either graded as being 'Class O - flame retardant' or non-combustible. The slabs of insulation are directly fixed to the existing wall surfaces and then encapsulated behind a 'wet applied' render finish externally. There are no designed air gaps within the finished insulated render system.

REQUEST:

1. Whether each high rise tower block* owned or operated by you has a working fire alarm in place within each flat? *a high rise tower block as defined by the Scottish Government as 18 metres tall and higher, which is roughly 6 floors and higher
2. Whether each high rise tower block owned or operated by you has a working fire alarm in place within communal areas?
3. Whether the fire alarms at each high rise tower block owned or operated by you are hard-wired, whether in individual flats or communal areas? 
4. The date before June 13, 2017, when fire alarms at each high rise tower block owned or operated by you were last tested to be in working order? 

I wish to have the information broken down to feature the street address of the property in column 1; the year the property was built or handed over to the authority in column 2; the answers to question 1 in column 3; and the answers to question 2 in column 4; the answers to question 3 in column 5; and the answers to question 4 in column 6. 

RESPONSE:

Perth & Kinross Council has 6 blocks of flats where the top storey is more than or equal to 18.00m above ground level.

1. Yes - List of smoke detectors / fire alarms in high rise flats (PDF) [209KB]
2. None of these blocks have fire alarm systems in common areas
3. Smoke detectors in Council owned flats are hard wired with a battery 'back up' facility
4. Home fire safety visits are carried out by our Community Safety team in conjunction with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. The operation of smoke detection equipment is tested during these visits. Home Fire Safety Visits are conducted through a continuously ongoing programme. The last main cycle of visits was completed in April 2017. Electrical safety checks (including the operation of smoke detection systems) are also carried out periodically and at each tenancy change. The last main round of electrical checks at Pomarium / Potterhill were completed in 2013/14 and at Milne, Market and Lickley Court in 2014/15

REQUEST:

Please answer the following questions. I make this request under the Freedom of Information Act. For clarity, residential tower blocks (buildings over 18m) should include those in your area, whether they are owned or managed by the council, arms-length housing company, housing trust, or whether privately owned or any other form of ownership or management. 

1. How many residential tower blocks are there in your council area? How many people live in these tower blocks?
2. How many of those residential tower blocks do not contain sprinkler systems? How many people live in tower blocks without sprinkler systems?
3. How many residential tower blocks do not have a central fire alarm system? How many people live tower blocks that do not have a central fire alarm system?
4. How many residential tower blocks are cladded? How many people live in cladded residential tower blocks?
5. How many residential tower blocks are cladded with Aluminium Composite Material (also known as Aluminium Composit Panels)? How many people live in tower blocks cladded with ACM/ACP?
6. Please state, for each building cladded with ACM/ACP, the type of insulation and core used with the panels, for example polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PUR), profiled metal or a mineral core. How many residential tower blocks are cladded with each core? How many people live in each building cladded with each core?
7. How many residential tower blocks are cladded with Reynobond PE cladding? How many people live in tower blocks cladded with Reynobond PE cladding?
8. How many residential tower blocks are cladded with Reynobond FR cladding? How many people live in tower blocks cladded with Reynobond FR cladding?
9. Where another type of cladding was used on a residential tower block, please state the type of cladding used. How many buildings are covered with each other type of cladding and how many people live in them?
10. Where cladding has been installed on a residential tower block, please state the name of the company that carried out the installation (where this is known).
11. Where fire tests have been carried out since the Grenfell Tower fire, please state how many residential tower blocks have been found to be cladded with materials found to be combustible? Please state how many people live in these tower blocks and the type of material that was found to be combustible. 
12. Please provide a copy of any fire test reports on cladding that have been produced since the Grenfell Tower fire and the results of these tests.
13. Please provide a list of all buildings in your area (residential and non-residential, where council managed or not) with ACM cladding and buildings more than 18m high. Please provide a copy of fire rest reports and results on these buildings (see 11)
14. How many of these buildings are used to house asylum seekers? How many asylum-seekers live in these buildings?
15. Please provide a copy of any correspondence with the Government about tower block cladding sent or received since 13 June, 2017.
16. Please provide a copy of any correspondence sent or received in the last seven years between the council and your local fire brigade and your local coroner about cladding on any buildings in your area.
17. Please provide a link to any planning applications involving cladding in the last seven years and a copy of any fire safety advice about cladding.

RESPONSE:

1. Perth & Kinross Council has 6 blocks of flats where the top storey is more than or equal to 18.00m above ground level. These blocks include Milne, Market and Lickley Court which each contain 35 flats, Potterhill Flats containing 48 flats and two separate blocks at Pomarium Street, Perth containing 45 and 44 flats respectively.  We are not aware of any other residential blocks within the area that would meet the requested criteria. A significant proportion of these flats have previously been sold under the 'right to buy scheme' and we have no occupancy data for these properties. We are, therefore, unable to confirm how many people live in the blocks.
2. None of the 6 blocks are fitted with sprinkler systems (refer to note 1 concerning building occupancy).
3. None of the 6 blocks are fitted with central fire alarm systems (refer to note 1 concerning building occupancy) .
4. 3 of the blocks (at Milne, Market and Lickley Court) have no external cladding or externally applied wall insulation. The other 3 blocks at Pomarium and Potterhill have retrospectively been fitted with external wall insulation (refer to note 1 concerning building occupancy).
5. None of the blocks have been fitted with Aluminium Composite Panels / or Aluminium Composite Material.
6. Not Applicable.
7. None.
8. None.
9. No blocks have been fitted with cladding panels, however, the material used on those that have been fitted with external wall insulation is SerpoRoc which comprises the following technical specification:- 30mm of mineral fibre insulation, mechanically fixed to the existing wall surface along with  a stainless steel lath carrier/ twill lath, 30 mm of pump applied base coat (15mm behind and 15mm in front of the mesh) with a 10mm top coat and tyrolean spray texture finish on to the cured smooth floated top coat. The system was applied directly to the existing (no fines concrete) wall surfaces and the insulation material is fully encapsulated by the external rendered finish without any designed air gap. The system is not rain screen cladding and does not include any Aluminium Composite Materials.
10. SerpoRoc uk
11. None.
12. Not Applicable.
13. No residential property within Perth & Kinross is known to have been fitted with Reynobond cladding materials
14. Not Applicable
15. Copies of correspondence attached
16. None
17. Not Applicable

REQUEST:

1. The date before June 13, 2017, when exterior or cladding work took place at each high rise tower block* owned or operated by you? (a high rise tower block as defined by the Scottish Government as 18 metres tall and higher, which is roughly 6 floors and higher)
2. Which contractor undertook the exterior or cladding work cited in question 1?
3. Any documents detailing the nature of the work cited in question 1, including but not limited to, the materials used for exterior or cladding work?

I wish to receive the information in questions 1 and 2 in Excel, Google Sheets or XLS format. I wish to have the information broken down to feature the address of the property in column 1; the answers to question 1 in column 2; and the answers to question 2 in column 3. I have no preference for question 3, whatever is easiest.

Template example for response: 

RESPONSE:

Perth & Kinross Council has 6 blocks of flats where the top storey is more than or equal to 18.00m above ground level.

Three of these blocks (at Milne, Market and Lickley Court) have had no external cladding or external wall insulation fitted. The other three blocks (two of them at Pomarium Street, Perth and one at Potterhill, Lochay Brae, Perth) have had external wall insulation fitted retrospectively in 1989/90.

The Council retains no records or documents on file that relate to the original installation projects for this work.

We do, however, know that the External Wall Insulation system used was 'SerpoRoc' which comprises the following technical specification:- 30mm of mineral fibre insulation, mechanically fixed to the existing wall surface along with  a stainless steel lath carrier/ twill lath, 30 mm of pump applied base coat (15mm behind and 15mm in front of the mesh) with a 10mm top coat and tyrolean spray texture finish on to the cured smooth floated top coat. The system was applied directly to the existing (no fines concrete) wall surfaces and the insulation material is fully encapsulated by the external rendered finish without any designed air gap. The system is not rain screen cladding and does not include any Aluminium Composite Materials.

We understand that SerpoRoc uk ceased trading several years ago, however, the SerpoRoc brand is still trading in Sweden as part of Weber Insulation Systems which is owned by the French based multi-national Saint Gobain group.