After the Grenfell Tower tragedy the Salford Star was promised that the process of investigating the cladding on Salford high rise blocks would be open and transparent.
Firstly, on 22nd June, after Theresa May had released a list of tower blocks and buildings with similar cladding to Grenfell Tower to 'councils, the fire service and constituency MPs', the Star wrote to the three Salford MPs asking for the details of the blocks affected...
Salford and Eccles MP, Rebecca Long-Bailey, responded that "I will let you know as soon as I find out. It's totally unacceptable to be kept in the dark by Government for this long!".
Nothing was ever heard again from the MP.
Meanwhile, Broughton and Blackley MP Graham Stringer didn't respond at all, and Barbara Keeley, MP for Eccles and Worsley South, stated that "I haven't received any letter from Sajid Javid about this, we are checking with his department this morning..."
Nothing was ever heard again from the MP.
With no actual details forthcoming at the time from the MPs, nor Salford Council, the Salford Star put in a Freedom of Information request on 26th June to obtain the results of the Government's fire safety tests on the nine Pendleton blocks owned by the Council, including Spruce Court, Thorn Court and Whitebeam Court.
No response was received until 9th August, almost six weeks later, despite Freedom of Information guidelines stating responses should be sent within twenty working days.
The Government fire safety test results on cladding of all nine blocks showed that they were in Category 3. The report stated: "Category 3 means "that it has no flame retardant properties".
The result is pretty horrifying but by the time Salford Council had released the information - with the caveat: "Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to you" Government tests had already moved on to include the whole cladding structure including insulation, which the Council blocks also failed.
Meanwhile, on 27th June, the Salford Star submitted another Freedom of Information request, asking for all Building Control documents relating to cladding work done on Spruce Court, Thorn Court and Whitebeam Court, together with all documents relating to work passed by Salford Council or non-Council inspectors.
On 28th June the Salford Star submitted a further request asking for all the emails between Salford Council Lead Member for Housing, Paul Longshaw*, and staff/directors at Pendleton Together between 13th and 28th June.
Nothing was received, except an email dated 22nd August stating that "this request is continuing to receive our attention. We hope to be able to provide you with a full response by the end of the week..." No information was received by 'the end of the week'.
On 8th September, the Salford Star sent a further email to Salford Council copied to Deputy Mayor John Merry - stating that if we didn't receive any response by 5pm last Friday we would have to assume some sort of cover up was going on.
The response from the Councils stated: "We are in the process of reviewing information held in relation to your request and expect to be in a position to respond to you early next week. Once again, we apologise for the delay in responding to your request which is due to the complexity and detailed consideration required..."
'Early next week' has now expired, so we must conclude that there is indeed a cover up of information relating to the cladding of the nine Pendleton high rises.
Salford Council's lack of response is being reported to the Information Commissioner, who had Salford Council on a special 'watch list' recently for not responding to Freedom of Information requests on time.
Most of the cladding is still on the nine Pendleton blocks, with residents not knowing how unsafe or safe it is to stay in the buildings.
* Paul Longshaw was unfortunately found dead at his home last week. An inquest is set for 5th December. See the Salford Mayor's tribute click here
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