Newham Council is set to spend half-a-million replacing flammable panels on Castle Point, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Newham Council has agreed to spend more than £502,000 replacing the combustible, red panels shown here on Castle Point in Plaistow (credit Google)

Combustible panels are set to be removed from a Newham Council-owned tower block in Plaistow.

Two sides of Castle Point in Boundary Road are fitted with panels that have a “high calorific value” – meaning they could contribute to the spread of a fire.

The council agreed this week to spend more than £525,000 on works to replace the panels “to ensure the safety of our residents”.

A fire risk assessment of Castle Point’s external walls in August 2022 found that panels attached next to the building’s communal staircases contain extruded polystyrene, a combustible material.

As the tower block is more than 18 metres tall it is considered a “high risk building” under the Building Safety Act 2022.

Planning permission to replace the panels was approved in June 2024. The plans showed that red spandrel panels attached to the centre of the building are the combustible cladding.

They said these would be replaced with new, glazed windows, which they said would also allow for more daylight and ventiliation into the building. The existing windows that the panels are attached to will also be replaced by glazed windows with angled, slatted grilles.

Now the council has agreed to pay £525,963 to private contractor OCL Facades for the fire safety works, in a decision approved on Tuesday (26th).

The decision says the spending also includes work to replace deffective fire doors, although it says it can ask leaseholders to contribute to this.

In total 13 leaseholders will be asked to contribute £23,803 between them. The council will contribute the remaining £502,160, paid for from its housing revenue account reserves and from borrowing.

The decision says this spending was included in the council’s annual capital budget approved by councillors in February this year, although the associated debt will cost it an estimated £40,000 a year to service.

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