Mansfield Council to spend £126k on 24-hour fire security extension at London building

The authority bought the building, in Clapham, in January 2017 at a cost of £5.95 million so it could use rental income to help shore up frontline services.

However, fire safety assessments in the wake of the June 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster identified “a number of” problems.

In total, the authority expects to spend about £20m bringing the safety issues right between 2018 – when the problems first came to light – and March 2025.

Part of the work requires a 24-hour ‘waking watch’ security firm to be on-site in the event of a fire breaking out, until the fire safety work is completed.

This is due to the building’s fire strategy being changed to “simultaneous evacuation” in the event of a blaze due to issues within the building that could allow a fire to spread.

The authority handed the security contract to Support Services Group in November 2021, but it expired in February.

Now the authority is to extend the contract by a further six months while it conducts a proper procurement on the security contract ahead of major repair works.

Dawn Edwards, council head of finance, is set to approve the £126,561.60 contract extension.

In a report ahead of the decision, Philip Colledge, council corporate asset manager, said: “The council purchased 50-52 Bedford Road, Clapham, in January 2017.

“Following receipt of advice in respect of post-completion fire compartmentation, it has been necessary to change the fire strategy from ‘stay put’ to ‘simultaneous evacuation’ and introduce a 24/7 waking watch and install a common fire alarm system.

“The waking watch involves security patrolling the building to raise the alarm and assist with the evacuation of residents in the event of a fire.

“These services will be required until the building has been remediated.

“SSG was awarded the contract after a procurement process. The initial 12-month contract expired on February 2, 2023. SSG’s performance has been satisfactory.

“While there was provision to extend the term by a further six months, this was not exercised before the original contract expired.

“It is proposed a further six-month contract be awarded to SSG to maintain security services on site while a new procurement process is undertaken.”