Work to remove 'fire risk' cladding from Bexhill apartment block delayed

Scaffolding was erected outside the Landmark building in Egerton Road in September last year when the work started.

The building still remains entombed in scaffolding but Oakfield Estate Agents, which manages the complex, said ‘80 per cent of the work has now been completed and certified’, despite being ‘overrun’.

Oakfield said it secured £6.4m in funding to completely replace the cladding before work started last September.

Sam Hensher, financial director at Oakfield, said in January this year that the project was set to be fully completed by the end of March 2024, with the scaffolding removed by the end of April, despite adverse weather causing some short delays earlier in the year.

She said this week: “The project has unfortunately overrun but 80 per cent of the work has been completed and certified, which is great.”

In January last year, the Observer reported on how residents living in the complex said they were left with crippling bills to pay for major repairs.

The Observer first reported in early 2021 how residents in the building, which contains 66 flats, said they were ‘living in fear’ after surveyors recommended major repairs to the complex following a safety report in November 2020.

Flat owners then saw their insurance costs rise, as well as bills for new safety measures increase. Some residents said their flats were rendered worthless, leaving them unable to sell up.

Oakfield said the company was appointed managing agents for the Landmark after the developers went into administration in 2012.

A waking watch and new fire alarm system were put in place. The former is a fire safety system in which trained staff patrol the floors and the outside of a building continually to provide warning in the event of a fire.

Oakfield added it was able to secure funding for the installation of the new fire alarm system via the Government’s Waking Watch Relief Scheme. However, it added leaseholders had to pay for the waking watch patrols themselves.

Further funding to replace the cladding was approved from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) via the Government’s Building Safety Fund.