Bridport House residents face community break-up as remedial works agreed

Bridport House residents have spoken of their devastation as they face the break-up of their community, as the Town Hall formally agreed to undertake remedial works on the poorly constructed block.

Tenants on the Colville Estate block were told at the end of August that they would have to move out within the year to make way for works to remedy “serious errors” made in the construction of the building.

The council has since apologised for the failures, with contractors Wilmott Partnership Homes now facing legal action from the Town Hall.

Now some residents are saying that they have had enough and will not return once works are complete, having put up with a range of problems since first moving in in 2011, from tiles falling off the roof to cracked and moving bricks, with residents told to stay off their balconies while the council undertook investigations into the building over the summer.

Bridport resident Michael Jones said: “Now that we are being moved, I won’t be returning. All I’ve got to say is, I don’t want to be in the middle in the legal battle with the developer.

“I just want to get on with my life and get out. I don’t think the compensation is enough, as our lives have been turned upside down.

“It’s very, very hard. I’m 70 years old, and I don’t know if I want to go through all that anymore. To move again, to go and come back, I might be dead by then.

“Also, since we had the last meeting, not one person has come over to the residents in Bridport and really said to us, ‘How do you feel about this?'”

Kevin McAndrew, treasurer of the Colville Estate tenants and residents’ association, said: “I would like to express the sadness of what’s gone on. We’re going to lose Michael now, a key member of the estate and the community.

“What we hoped for, looking at regeneration for keeping the community together has led to the community being broken apart. It’s been a complete failure for us.”

Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville, who heard the comments of both Jones and McAndrew at last night’s council meeting, agreed with the Bridport residents that emotional support around the trauma faced by residents was “maybe something [the council] should consider.”

It is understood that Independent Tenant and Leaseholder Advisory services are on hand to aid residents in legal matters, with Mayor Glanville himself having visited the Colville Estate personally since the news first broke at a public meeting in August.

There is currently no suggestion that the building is structurally unsound to the point of needing to be demolished.

Following council investigations, combustible insulation is now known to have been installed in Bridport only permissible in buildings that are under 18 metres tall in height.

The Town Hall also found that cavity barriers to prevent the spread of hidden fire and smoke within the building have been installed “unsuitably”, not fully filling the cavities as they are required to, with the building’s brickwork, balconies and windows also found to be flawed.

Those moving permanently are to be offered a one-off home loss payment of £6,300, with the potential for other financial aids from the council such as removal costs or compensation for lost single person discounts on council tax.

It is understood that the council has so far only set out the legal minimum for compensation, with individual packages of extra compensation tailored to meet particular need.

The council has now spoken to 37 of the 41 people impacted by what has happened, with a comprehensive fire alarm system installed following the imposition of 24-hour fire marshals in the block when concerns over fire safety were first raised.

Residents stressed at the meeting in August that minds could not be set at rest by financial compensation alone, with some confessing to having been “traumatised” by the years of uncertainty over their living situation.

Mayor Philip Glanville said: “We are deeply sorry for what’s happened to the residents of Bridport House over the last eight years, and this final eighteen months where you’ve seen the most disruption.

“We won’t rely on waiting for any legal redress from Wilmott Dixon, and we are firmly putting residents first in our duties as a council to fix this.

“Day-to-day resident safety is very important. That’s why we had the waking watch in place, why we’ve installed the fire alarms, and ultimately why we have to decant to do these works.

“What Kevin said about keeping the community together is at the heart of what we have been seeking to do, offering that sacrosanct full right of return to Bridport residents, while recognising some people’s housing circumstances or personal preferences may have changed, and wanting to keep people on Colville in Shoreditch.

“Our priority as a council is to keep that Colville Shoreditch community together on the Colville, in high-quality homes at Bridport and as much as possible during this temporary decant period.

“But again, I can completely respect why people might say, ‘I just want a clean break from this process.’ If that breaks up the community, that is deeply saddening to me, and that is what we want to seek to avoid as far as possible while making sure there is choice available to individual households.

“No-one wants to be in this situation, and I can’t apologise enough on the part of the council.”

Bridport House residents seeking support are advised to email Colin Bright on colin.bright@hackney.gov.uk or 020 8356 7591.