Need to find the designers of this wall

Published: 11 February, 2011
by DUGALD GONSAL

In the aftermath of the 2007 accident there are lessons to be learned for how Camden manages its technical housing responsibilities 

HAVING listened from the public gallery to most of the proceedings in the case at Southwark Crown Court concerning the death of Saurav Ghai, I was disappointed and somewhat surprised that there seemed to have been little, if any, effort made to identify those responsible for the original design and construction of the wall which collapsed.

As seemed to have been accepted by the court, the wall was doomed to failure almost from the day that it was built in the mid-1970s because it did not conform to prevailing national standards for structural engineering safety.  

The court also found that, on the basis of the evidence provided, Camden was culpable.  Camden had failed to identify and rectify serious defects in the sub-standard wall, in time to avert the tragic accident, since at least the late 1990s, despite employing consultants to assess the condition of the housing stock on Wendling estate.

Why is it necessary to identify the original designer(s) of the wall? 

First, because they may have carried out other work elsewhere in Camden and it is possible, therefore, that a similar “incident” may be waiting to happen.  

Secondly, because during the course of the evidence it emerged that some witnesses may have been aware that walls of similar construction existed elsewhere.  

Thirdly, because neither staff at Camden responsible for commissioning routine maintenance, nor the consultants involved with stock condition surveys of this estate, were immediately alerted to the unsatisfactory condition of the wall and the need for urgent action to deal with it. 

I recall that when this estate was under construction there was a massive building programme at Camden with many consultants and contractors employed to deliver most of the programme.  

Camden then employed a number of fully qualified and experienced architects, engineers and surveyors, some of whom were involved in commissioning and overseeing the work of external consultants while others were engaged in the design and construction of new buildings and more complicated routine maintenance of the housing stock.  

In addition there were resident and visiting clerks of works on some of the more complex building sites. 

Of course, despite all these arrangements, there were some failures, for example, the catastrophic collapse of the two five-storeyed Victorian buildings in Belsize Avenue on the night of January 1-2 1976, while they were being refurbished – thankfully, with no casualties.  

But the point is that Camden then had the expertise in-house to manage the investigations to a final conclusion, where the parties involved were external consultants and contractors, within five months of the incident.

Local authorities are essentially service delivery organisations of a very specific type – their powers and duties are derived from and protected by Parliament.  

During the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering in the 1980s there was much discussion about externalising technical services by privatisation and the concept of the “Intelligent Client” was born.  

Essentially what this meant was that local councils with large portfolios of construction stock were urged to retain a small core of competent professionals in-house to advise the authority on construction and maintenance policy and the commissioning of consultants and contractors to undertake work on the housing stock. 

Camden fell into this category with about 35,000 properties (about 75 per cent of that now) at the time the Right to Buy legislation was introduced.  

It is not known whether Camden now employs any chartered construction professionals to deal with its large housing stock and oversee the work of its construction consultants but, based on the evidence given to the court by housing department “patch managers”, this would seem highly unlikely.  

Following the court case, there would surely seem to be an urgent need for this to be reviewed, so as to ensure that a group of technical housing professionals, working together, is available to Camden at all times.

• Dugald Gonsal, who is retired, was formerly the Town Hall’s chief engineer and assistant director of environment.