Mansfield Council extends 24-hour security ahead of fire safety repairs at London flats

The authority has continued its agreement with Support Services Group for another three-and-a-half months.

The firm has been on-site since November 2021 after the building, on Bedford Road, Clapham, was found with significant safety issues.

The council – then controlled by the Mansfield Independent Forum – bought the building as an investment for £5.95m in January 2017 as a way of diversifying income streams during austerity.

However, investigations in 2018 following the Grenfell Tower disaster found “a number of issues” needed to be addressed.

This included compartmentation issues “inside the walls” which would make it difficult to contain a fire, as well as an absence of fire safety resistance in materials used to construct key escape routes.

The council appointed SSG to secure the building in the wake of the issues coming to light.

The company offers a 24-hour “waking watch” across the building and is instructed to enforce a “simultaneous evacuation” of the site if fire breaks out.

Overall, the authority has budgeted about £20m between 2018 and 2025 to correct the issues.

Repairs will lead to residents in all 40 apartments leaving their homes and being moved into temporary accommodation – a contract worth £2.2m was signed with London-based estate agency Lambert Smith Hampton earlier this year and will fund all relocation fees for each household.

Once residents have left, the building is set to be rebuilt internally with floors, walls and ceilings ripped out.

Building control permission is still being negotiated, Mansfield Council has confirmed, but work is scheduled to start on November 23.

And now the council has officially decided to extend SSG’s service until November when works begin.

Its contract was initially extended for six months to August 2 earlier this year, costing £126,561.60. The cost of the 113-day extension can be calculated at about £78,000.

Michael Robinson, council strategic director, has approved the extension, alongside plans to procure a new security contract for during the works.

In a statement, Andy Abrahams, Mansfield mayor, said: “For the safety of residents, we have continued our contract with SSG to allow security measures in the building for residents to continue while we undertake the full procurement exercise.”