MP takes cold hard look at Felmores (From Echo)

MP takes cold hard look at Felmores

8:00am Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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THE MP for Basildon has visited a fire-ravaged estate to see for herself why residents are worried about safety following a damning dossier.

Last week, the Echo revealed a string of revelations about the wood-clad properties on the Bockingham Green estate in Felmores, Basildon, which was ripped apart by fire last November.

We told how, of the 88 homes in Bockingham Green, only four – those owned by Swan Housing – had been subject to a fire risk assessment.

The rest hadn’t, despite legislation requiring assessments having being passed in 2006.

When the assessment finally was carried out – two months after the devastating blaze – it found there was a “substantial” risk of serious injury or death to residents in the event of a fire.

Despite this, measures to cut the risk of fire on the estate aren’t due to be completed until the end of April.

And, despite repeated requests from the Echo to housing bosses to start the work earlier – or even install some fire extinguishers – Basildon Council and St Georges Community Housing refused our request.

Walking around Bockingham Green, Basildon MP Angela Smith said she could not understand why basic fire safety measures were not being put in place immediately.

She said: “People who live here want reassurance, and they want to be in safe homes.

“The vast majority of people living here want to stay.

“The council should be doing everything it can to do the work and to reassure people.

“In an emergency you would have to call the fire service, but they could reassure people by getting some basics, like fire extinguishers.”

While on the estate, Mrs Smith was shocked to find a communal area strewn with rubbish, debris and wood.

She feared it presented another fire hazard.

But her greatest shock came when she visited a mum-of-two who had been without communal lighting outside her second-floor flat for nearly two months.

The issue was raised by the Echo when we spoke to St Georges Community housing boss Stephen Shynn last week, after we also found two dumped mattresses in the stairwell in the same block of flats.

The lack of lighting outside Kadim Abraham’s home meant in the event of a fire she would struggle to find her way to the stairwell with her children.

The 33-year-old told Mrs Smith: “I have got no chance of getting out. I prefer not to think about what would happen.

“We were so lucky we weren’t here when the fire happened. My baby was only three months old. I can’t imagine what we would have gone through.”

In the wake of the Echo’s revelations, Mrs Smith has now written to all housing associations to ask how confident they are of homes complying with fire legislation.

She has also pressed them to reveal the number of homes still awaiting fire risk assessments and a timescale for outstanding ones to be completed.

The Labour MP has raised her concerns over safety at Bockingham Green with housing minister John Healey.

Mrs Smith said: “The minister was really concerned on two grounds; one was the assessments not being undertaken and the other was how worried people are.

“He has asked me to keep him informed.”