Residents paying £10,000 a week for fire wardens over safety concerns

Residents in two apartment blocks have been paying £10,000 a week for fire warden patrols due to safety concerns.

The 24-hour "waking watch" at Albion Works in Manchester was introduced after fire officials found alarms could not be heard in the flats.

Residential Management Group (RMG) said the wardens, who began patrols with air horns in December, would continue until a new fire alarm system was installed.

Residents said that meant they had been "asked to write a blank cheque".

The two buildings managed by RMG on the Ancoats site house a total of 182 flats.

Five wardens at a time have been patrolling on 12-hour shifts, with the costs covered by an extra service charge and the residents' reserve fund.

Resident and flat owner Matthew Hallworth said it would double his monthly service charge.

"We have been asked to write a blank cheque for this waking watch for an indefinite amount of time [as] we've not been given any kind of time frame," he said.

Fellow resident Emma Tudor said she did not believe "it should have got to the point where the alarm system is human, rather than electronic".

RMG said it had acted on safety advice from the fire service, surveyors and fire engineers regarding the timber and foam cladding on the buildings following changes after the Grenfell fire disaster in 2017.

"The cladding and insulation is non-compliant and in line with government guidance requires mitigation to ensure the building is safe," RMG operations director Justin Herbert said.

"Before the problem was identified, the fire alarm did not have a requirement to be heard within the apartments, because the policy was for residents to stay put."

However, he said the policy had had to change over the cladding concerns, which meant "to maintain safety", any fire alarm had to be heard inside the flats.

An RMG spokesman said a new fire alarm system would be installed in the two blocks once plans were approved by the fire service.