Council’s reassurance following Grenfell Tower fire

Carmarthenshire County Council has moved to reassure its tenants about fire safety and risk as part of its response to the Grenfell Tower fire.
It has confirmed that no cladding has been added to blocks of council-owned flats in the county, and that cladding added to other homes in its stock is of a different variety to that used on Grenfell Tower.
Whilst reiterating that robust fire safety procedures are already in place, officers will review the council’s existing fire risk assessment programme as part of its response to the London tragedy.
Robin Staines, Head of Housing, Public Protection and Provider Services, said: “We have undertaken a review of our housing stock as part of our response to the Grenfell Tower fire, and wish to reassure our tenants that we have no cladding of the same or similar variety on any of our homes.
“We also wish to reassure that we have robust fire safety procedures in place and work closely with colleagues at Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service to assess all processes in relation to maintenance work and evacuation of tenants in case of an emergency. Indeed, we are proud that we are currently being signposted as a ‘Best Practice’ authority by the Fire Service for the way in which we manage fire safety in our sheltered schemes.
“Whilst there are 12 blocks of flats in council ownership in Carmarthenshire, these are of three and four storeys and are not high-rise buildings. No over-cladding work has been carried out on these blocks.
“Where external insulation has been added to other properties in our stock, the material used has been rigorously fire safety tested and is not plastic or aluminium based, as was the cladding used at Grenfell Tower.
“Furthermore, all homes brought up to the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard Plus include the installation of hard wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.”
He added: “We take the safety of our tenants and our responsibilities as a landlord very seriously, and therefore to reassure our tenants, and ourselves, we are also planning to review our existing risk assessment programme which will include a further assessment of fire management planning and will re-provide fire information advice to all tenants.”