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Council pledges to look into tower sprinklers after newspaper’s petition

A council has pledged to explore installing sprinklers in high rise tower blocks after a local newspaper’s campaign.

The monthly Hackney Citizen delivered a petition signed by 1,640 people in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy to Hackney Council, calling for fire sprinklers to be fitted in council blocks taller than 30 metres.

The Citizen revealed in June that just two of Hackney’s 181 medium to high-rise blocks have sprinklers installed.

Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville has responded to the Citizen‘s petition and says the sprinkler idea will be “fully explored”.

Grenfell

Mr Glanville said: “Following the tragic events at the Grenfell Tower, we’ve put in place a number of measures regarding the fire safety of council blocks across the borough such as by undertaking a comprehensive fire safety review, as well as a review of cladding used on council blocks to provide residents with added reassurance.

“Sprinklers will be fully explored as part of these reviews and we will move to install them if recommended to do so by our independent fire adviser or following advice from the London Fire Brigade.

“In addition we will await with keen interest any interim findings and recommendations from the Public Inquiry into Grenfell and, as we did following the Lakanal House tragedy, respond quickly to them.”

Citizen editor Keith Magnum said: “We thank the Mayor for his response to the petition, and also everyone who signed it. Sadly, there is nothing in it that he has not already said.

“However, we look forward to him taking prompt action on the recommendations from both the council’s independent fire adviser and the Grenfell inquiry.”

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  • August 16, 2017 at 9:21 am
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    Sprinklers should have been and ought to be installed in all tower blocks etc no matter how tall they are.

    Good for the paper to have persuaded the council to fit them.

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