Comment Gary Court, Croydon
COMMENT Remediation success
Luke Driscoll of Hyde Group explains how engaging residents from the outset of building safety remediation projects is the key success
T
he landmark Building a Safer Future publication and subsequent legislation reinforced the importance of building owners’ obligations to provide safe homes. At Hyde, we’re committed to becoming a truly
customer-driven organisation, providing great services to customers and ensuring our homes are safe, decent and energy-effi cient. Large scale building safety projects that involve removing cladding and
combustible materials from buildings, is one of the ways we’re ensuring our buildings and the people who live in them are safe. T e advantages, from increased safety for our residents to potential fi nancial benefi ts, emphasise their importance. However, the challenges, particularly regarding the impact on those still
living in the buildings, logistical complexities, resource shortage and cost, require detailed solutions and collaborative eff orts among stakeholders. Building safety remediation projects can cause signifi cant disruption to
residents, with noise, dust and restricted access to parts of their building and surroundings. Managing this intense disruption over a signifi cant time frame requires careful planning and communication. T at’s the approach we took when remediating Gary Court, one of our high- rise residential towers in Croydon. Gary Court is a nine-storey block of 150
homes and several commercial units. It was built with what was later confi rmed to be non-compliant and combustible elements within the external wall system. We set out to replace the building’s external walls, lowering the risk of
fi re spreading. T is involved removing more than 250,000 bricks, along with terracotta tiles, which were cleaned and stored, before being re-used on the building, to maintain its original appearance. Gary Court was wrapped in scaff olding for two summers, across 2022 and
2023, blocking natural light and residents’ views. Our contractor, Equans’ site compound completely took over the car park and internal courtyard. We also carried out the remediation work while people stayed in their homes. T e impact on our residents was considerable. Proactively engaging and communicating with residents, and building
trusting relationships with the local community, was therefore key. Monthly project meetings kept tenants informed as we brought them along
the journey with us. During these meetings, residents had the opportunity to raise concerns and have questions answered. We factored their feedback into our programme, putting them at the heart of everything we did. Information such as key milestones and guidance were shared regularly through email and a dedicated webpage on our website.
22 | HMMAugust/September 2024 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
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