A council getting their priorities totally wrong...

Our previous post - The consequences of neglect... 16.11.23 - took an overview of the systemic neglect of social housing stock that led to the situation where the Barton House block in the east of Bristol had to be evacuated at short notice because of concerns about its structural integrity. What this post will be looking at are the totally skewed priorities of Bristol City Council and how this has contributed to the crisis at Barton House.

According to this article - Government warned Bristol City Council about Barton House and four other blocks in 2017 - Tristan Cork | Bristol Post | 16.11.23 - the council have been aware of the potential issues at Barton House for six years. Back in September 2017, following the appearance of large cracks in LPS buildings on the Ledbury Estate in Peckham in south east London, the director general for the Building Safety Programme at the Government Department for Communities and Local Government, Tamara Finkelstein, wrote to all of the council chief executives in the country whose housing stock had buildings constructed using the Large Panel System (LPS). This letter was sent to Bristol’s City Hall on September 5^th, 2017. This is part of what she had to say:

“I have previously written to local authorities with buildings similar to those that have been affected, and I am now writing more widely to all local authorities and housing associations to ensure you are aware of the situation and to outline actions you may want to consider in relation to any Large Panel System buildings within your control.”

“Residents may be concerned about their building following recent reports they may have seen in the media. You may want to consider, therefore, contacting them yourselves to reassure them about steps you are taking.”

Almost a year later, on August 28^th, 2018, the council answered a Freedom of Information request, admitting that since work undertaken in 1970 in the wake of the Ronan Point disaster to strengthen Barton House and the other LPS buildings in Bristol: “We have no records of any structural surveys carried out of these blocks, although the 1970 records suggest that structural surveys were carried out at that time.”

It's fifty three years since the last structural survey was carried out at Barton House and six years since Bristol City Council were warned that they needed to be looking at their blocks built using LPS. That's over half a century of ignoring a problem and six years of failing to act after receiving a clear warning about potential structural issues. This inaction beggars belief, doesn't it?

The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has been named as a finalist in the World Mayor Awards 2023, which prompted us to write this post: Seriously?! 3.11.23. On a number of occasions, we've been obliged to write posts pointing out the failure of the council to get the basics of their job right: Are Bristol City Council and Sustrans taking the piss? 27.6.23. There's a constant theme of Rees and his council spending a lot of time and money on boosting Bristol as a 'world city' while continually screwing up on getting the basics right.

When it suits them, Bristol City Council seem to have a never ending stream of money to throw at pet projects where costs run right out of control. The refurbishment of the Bristol Beacon, formerly known as the Colston Hall, is a classic example of this hubristic boosterism where money is no object: Bristol Beacon refurb cost spirals by another £25 million - Adam Postans | The Bristol Cable | 17.1.23.

Marvin Rees is a bit of a globetrotter, jetting around the world to 'promote' Bristol. 'Promote' meaning it's open house for rapacious developers who want to use the city as a cash cow, regardless of the negative impacts of this on long suffering residents. His latest jaunt is attending the Commonwealth Local Government Conference in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. He was away at this event when the Barton House crisis broke: Rees in Rwanda: ‘I’m leading’ - Martin Booth | B24/7 | 15.11.23.

So, when there are prestigious, showcase buildings to refurbish or conferences across the globe to attend, the money always seems to be there on tap, no questions asked. However, when it comes to getting the basics of the job right, such as ensuring that the city's social housing stock is safe to live in, these always seem to get pushed right down the priority order. This is a city administration whose priorities are completely skewed in the wrong direction. This has to radically change, the sooner the better...