20 tower blocks across Sheffield to have fire safety reviews

Sheffield Council is carrying out the fire risk assessments and has already replaced external cladding at Hanover Tower in Broomhall.

Phase two is in progress and will deliver fire compartmentation and renewal of fire safety systems at Hanover and Stannington tower blocks.

Now phase three is underway and will again involve fire compartmentation and renewal of fire safety systems, this time at 20 tower blocks.

There will be checks that fire strategies are up to date and communal areas will be upgraded with fire doors, screens and flooring

There will also be a review of existing waste disposal chute systems looking at how to close these off and dispose of rubbish in alternative ways.

Which Sheffield tower blocks will have a fire safety assessment?

The review will cover six blocks at Gleadless, including Handbank which has an existing sprinkler system installed in 2011

Three blocks at Leverton Gardens at Highfield and seven blocks at Upperthorpe will be looked at.

And there will be another four blocks at Netherthorpe, including the “higher risk” Cornhill block used for temporary accommodation.

Hanover tower, the 15-storey block with 118 flats, was the last to be refurbished as part of Sheffield’s biggest housing improvement scheme in 2009.

At the time, residents were told safe aluminium material would be used.

But years later government lab tests – introduced in the wake of the Grenfell disaster in 2017 – found it was a cheaper material with ‘no flame retardant properties’. The council has replaced it with solid aluminium cladding.