Demand for check on estate electrical safety - Surge blew up radio equipment in Ampthill Square flats

Published: 27 January 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

A POWER surge ran through a council tower block’s electricity supply blowing radio speakers in residents’ homes.

Residents of the Ampthill Square Estate in Camden Town told how they saw smoke coming out of their equipment. It followed days of flickering lights in the Oxenholme block.

The 2009 incident has been the subject of a confidential investigation  over the past 18 months, which finally emerged for open discussion by councillors and officials at the Town Hall last week.

A simple explanation, officials heard, could have been a problem known as a “loose neutral” in the wiring. It had been earmarked for replacement but the council had not got around to the job.

Labour councillor Meric Apak, chairman of the council’s cross-party Housing and Adult Social Care Committee (HASC), investigated the incident and recommended tighter communication between the Town Hall and those that work for it, and more rapid emergency responses. He told the meeting: “I think there needs to be adequate protocols in place, somebody should be able to instantly turn off the supply in an emergency.”

He warned that some homes on the estates had “invalid electrical safety certificates issued by sub-contractors” and criticised the council – as landlords – for not admitting responsibility.

Fran Heron, who lives on the Ampthill estate, told the meeting: “This blew people’s electrical equipment with smoke coming out of them. We were not protected. They said we wouldn’t have been protected even if we had bought surge protection equipment – it was too strong for that.”

Ms Heron said residents were still waiting to be told whether they would be compensated.

The issue of electrical safety on Camden’s council estates has been a highly sensitive issue at the Town Hall since the death of Ralph Kennedy on the Mayford estate in Somers Town in 2006. Camden admitted responsibility for a faulty lamp fitting that led to the tragedy.

A council statement: “We understand residents concerns’ following the power surge at Oxenholme and treat electrical safety as a high priority. The council has a programme of proactive testing of electrical installations across the housing portfolio including periodic inspection for all communal electrical mains on a five year cycle. When tested all immediate hazards are corrected, follow on works are then arranged or programmed as required.”

It emerged at last week’s HASC meeting that meeting that electrical problems were identified in two council blocks in Gospel Oak last year after workmen had been doing “Decent Homes” improvement work on the flats. Work had to be redone after it was found a “rogue subcontractor” had not completed rewiring work adequately.

Council chiefs were asked for assurances that any work conducted by the same employees had not left undetected dangers on other estates. 

Petra Dando, from the Camden Association of Street Properties, said: “It has been established that there was a rogue contractor. Until the names and addresses of the properties where this contractor worked have been provided, there is only one possible route to go down – to go into every home that has had Decent Homes work and check them. You can talk about the cost of that, but cost doesn’t come into it into a situation like this.”

The Town Hall’s statement said there was no danger to residents and the subcontractor invol­ved was no longer working on Camden’s estates. His work has been checked.