RESIDENTS of Crown Heights have expressed their dissatisfaction with how long it is taking for potentially dangerous cladding to be removed from the building.

As previously reported, the external cladding at Crown Heights, which has around 250 flats, contains the flammable material ‘expanded polystyrene’ and features no firebreaks.

This means that should a fire break out, it could engulf the entire building in a similar manner to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017.

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The original developer of the building, Barratt Homes Southern, is currently in the process of undertaking a risk assessment on Crown Heights to see what work needs to be done, with new fire systems, such as heat sensors, in place to try to reduce the risk of fires.

However, the lengthy process has left residents of the building upset.

Nurse Peter Bell, who has a shared ownership mortgage on a flat in Crown Heights, said that he has been “effectively trapped” due to the cladding on the building.

He said: “Me and my girlfriend, we both work in the hospital, and we have enough money to buy a place for good, but we can’t get out of the mortgage here until the cladding is sorted out.

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“It just keeps being kicked down the road every time; I think we’re now talking about starting sometime next year and it going on until 2025.”

Karthik Bilakanti is another Crown Heights resident who has been affected by the cladding.

He said: “They’ve been saying they’ll do it but we are getting nowhere basically.”

He continued: “Barratt has said they will do it, but at Winterthur Way, they had the same issue as us, but theirs is already underway, I think their work is going super-fast.

“But in terms of Crown Heights, I don’t even know if they will do it now or if they will do it in three years’ time.”

Bradley Akerman said: “The main reason it’s all kicked off is what happened at Grenfell, I mean what a tragedy that was.

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“It’s rubbish knowing that it is that big a risk and they are not taking it seriously and they have not pushed that forward."

Meanwhile, Harry Stone added: “It’s not brilliant, but with the new fire systems in place I’m confident that it should be okay.

“You have to trust in that, there’s not really much we can do about it.”