At this week's Grenfell Tower Inquiry into the horrendous fire aided by the dangerous cladding wrapped around the building, Pendleton has loomed large.
The nine blocks owned by Salford City Council and managed by Pendleton Together took centre stage as emails between companies selling and buying the flammable panels were raked through, with the implication that suppliers knew that what was going up in Salford was dodgy (more on this to follow).
At the centre of it all was the apparent blasé attitude towards fire safety and its subsequent effect on people living in apartment blocks. Yet in the same week that the Pendleton blocks were discussed in too many same breaths as Grenfell, a fire exit door at the back of one the blocks, Malus Court, has been unable to be opened since Tuesday at least.
"When we have to evacuate, we have to come down the stairs and exit through that back door" says resident, Graeme Langton "It's coming off its hinges by the looks of it; you can't push it open and if you did, it would probably topple over and fall on someone as it's a lot of weight.
"This morning I went down to use it, to get a bit of fresh air out the back, but I couldn't get out" he adds "I asked the fire marshal about it and he said he'd reported it on Tuesday. If there's a fire now, that's our exit. Not only will the smoke be coming under the fire doors because the gaps are too big, people won't be able to see that the door is broken before they get there.
"Once the fire marshals had reported it, they should have contacted every resident and told them the new procedure" he says "But we've not even been told it's broken so if there had been a fire I would have been going to this door thinking I'm getting out..."
Neither Pendleton Together, nor Salford Council, responds to Salford Star requests for comments.
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