Embassy Site Services a scaffolding and roofing company have been awarded access for recladding works on Seren Park Gardens tower blocks in Greenwich. Embassy Site Services revealed on their newsletter that “Off the back of several successful key projects for a long-standing client, Embassy have been awarded the Scaffold & Access package for re-cladding works on these tower blocks in Greenwich.” The recladding works started in October.

This comes after the London Fire Brigade revealed that over 1,000 buildings in London still had flammable cladding.

The access given to Embassy Site Services is therefore a massive relief to residents living within Seren Park Gardens in Greenwich as they will be able to feel safe in their own homes and the access will prevent another tragedy like the Grenfell fire. Trinity Coleman a resident of Seren Park gardens who lives with her two sons aged 16 and 14 said that “I’m relieved that the works are happening after seeing the disaster at Grenfell.” Coleman went onto say that “I am surprised that they haven’t done this sooner.” Resident Aleksandra Chlebek aged 31, who lives with her partner was also happy about the works happening but said that “the works are loud, and I will be happy when they are finished.” It is clear that the residents of Seren Park Gardens have felt a weight off their shoulders after the work starting and look forward to the work being completed.

Anne Clark a Labour Assembly member enquired to Sadiq Khan about these buildings. Khan revealed that as of the 18th October 2021 there were 71 buildings that were not fire safe. Greenwich has one of the highest amounts behind Tower Hamlets with 162 and Hackney with 86. These buildings without fireproof cladding do take precautions however with Waking Watches which the National Fire Chiefs Council guidance defines as a system where ‘suitably trained persons continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter of the building in order to detect a fire, raise the alarm, and carry out the role of evacuation management’.

The Waking Watches were introduced after the 2017 Grenfell fire where 72 people died. The tower block was set a light by a faulty refrigerator and due to the cladding not being to building regulations the fire spread to the whole building. The building was burning for 24 hours before being put out.

In the aftermath of the Grenfell fire there have been protests campaigning for action to make tower blocks across London and the United Kingdom safer to live in and prevent anymore tragedies such as the Grenfell tower. However there have still been cases of fires within tower blocks more recently on Fairmont Avenue in Poplar, East London. The fire was not as fatal as Grenfell with only two rushed to hospital and 36 treated by ambulances crew at the tower block. Incidents such as this show that not enough has been done since the Grenfell fire and tower blocks across the UK need to become safer for the people that live in them.