Earlier this month, the Salford Star wrote to Pendleton Together Operating Limited (PTOL) asking for the release of a report by Trident Consultants into safety on the nine Pendleton blocks that have loads of safety issues and were covered in Grenfell Tower style cladding.
Salford City Council owns the blocks and PTOL manage them. After constantly dodging demands for the report, the Council recently stated that it was commissioned by PTOL and therefore its release was up to that company...although both the City Mayor, Paul Dennett, and Deputy Mayor, John Merry, told residents and the Salford Star that, while details were to be used in litigation cases, they had no problem with its conclusions being released.
...However, in response to the Salford Star asking for the report, a PTOL spokesperson replied "There is no Trident report. Trident are advising on a number of building issues, but are not producing a report."
At yesterdays' full meeting of Salford Council, Councillor Paul Wilson, again brought up the issue... "Clearly residents in tower blocks are extremely concerned...I understand that you don't want to share the report with the wider public, however I think the residents do want to know the conclusions of that report and there is certainly a lot of confusion out there" he said "How are we going to get the conclusions of that report to the residents of the tower blocks?"
In response, Deputy Mayor, John Merry, said: "There isn't a single 'report' and it's not our report... "It is a report...(pause)...a series of surveys that PTOL compiled in terms of the state of the various blocks, and some of that will be used, I'm sure, potentially in future litigation.
"I don't think it would be sensible for them to release details, until they have to, of information that is going to be required to continue in terms of litigation" he added "What they have offered to do, and I think that's been communicated adequately in the press and elsewhere, is to share the conclusions of that report with individuals who want to contact them, and I think that's a perfectly fair response."
Except that this is garbage because PTOL has not released it to anyone...
"It is not a magic bullet that is going to tell people things, I don't think, that is not already obvious to the residents, that there have been issues" Councillor Merry added "It's not going to identify any particular new issues as far as I'm concerned. It is going to identify issues around what needs to be done to tackle it, and I think those conclusions should be shared with them. But I don't think we can recommend sharing the full report to them..."
...Especially when it's not a 'report'!
At present, this appears to be a clear case of both the Council and PTOL playing semantics to avoid releasing the Trident report, and letting residents know exactly what the safety issues are in their flats and blocks. As the Deputy Mayor states, the report will be used only "potentially in future litigation". In the meantime, they surely have a right to know just how bad the safety issues are in their blocks...
When is a report not a report? When it's a series of surveys with a conclusion!
For a full background see previous Salford Star articles...
Trident Report Not Released - click here
Where Is The Trident Safety Report? - click here
Pendleton Together Tenants Tell of Safety Issues - click here
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
