Fire safety works approved for city apartment complex

Kieran Molloy, Local Democracy Reporter

A city council has approved “important fire safety works” at a well-known apartment building after a post-Grenfell review identified potentially combustible materials.

Savills, a real estate services company, has been granted approval by Cardiff Council to carry out fire safety work on block A of Prospect Place in Ferry Road in Grangetown.

The application was made on behalf of Bellways Homes, the UK housing giant who originally built the privately-owned estate.

Planning documents read: “Following the Grenfell Tower disaster, Bellway have undertaken a detailed review of all of their built schemes.

“This process has identified a number of buildings which are in part constructed with potentially combustible cladding material, including the aforementioned buildings. Bellway have committed to replacing the potentially combustible materials with appropriate alternative non-combustible materials.

“Having reviewed the external materials used in the construction of Prospect Place Block A, Bellway identified areas requiring remediation to ensure compliance with the latest building fire safety regulations.”

This follows some residents in a block called Lady Isle House having to be moved to temporary accommodation in October 2024 following a fire risk assessment although they were moved back in by Christmas of that year after fire safety measures were implemented.

Works approved for the site include the installation of “90-minute fire-rated cavity barriers” within the brickwork, the removal and replacement of “timber cladding and sandwich-board panels”, the inspection of the “curtain walling system” and the removal and replacement of all combustible balcony decking and the installation of a Cedral Click system.

A Cedral Click system is a type of cladding system.

The application reads: “In summary the works include the removal of the previously-installed combustible materials which have been replaced with non-combustible materials. All replacements will be like-for-like in appearance.”

The appearance of the building will remain largely unchanged except that, according to the application, the facade line will sit “approximately 4.5cm forward than the existing facade line”.

However “this will be flush with the adjacent materials across the remainder of the building. This change will be imperceptible and will not materially affect the external appearance”.

The applicant finishes by saying: “This application has been submitted to enable important fire safety works to be carried out.”