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Fire Brigade to charge for lift rescues
Town Hall to face bill for visits to ‘blacklisted’ estates as crews warn of delays to fix faults
THE Fire Brigade is set to fine the Town Hall if crews are repeatedly called to the same council blocks to rescue people stuck in broken lifts.
Lift call-outs are to be downgraded in importance among rescue teams to “non emergency” status from the start of November.
Under the changes, the London Fire Brigade will send firefighters to help people trapped in lifts but not at the expense of other call-outs.
And it will start charging the owners of buildings that repeatedly request its assistance with the problem.
The policy shift does not augur well for Camden in particular, which is ranked as one of the worst offenders for emergency lift breakdowns among the London boroughs.
Fire crews made 1,219 visits to Camden lifts between April 2008 and April 2009 – more than three call-outs a day.
Camden Council, which manages most of the borough’s high-rise estates, will be handed a £277 bill per call-out to “blacklisted” blocks, estates that make more than ten 999 lift calls a year.
Residents caught in the faulty or dilapidated lifts may face longer waits to be rescued as fire engines will be instructed to no longer use sirens or blue lights to beat traffic.
It is feared that estates, such as Millman Place in Bloomsbury, where there were reportedly one hundred lift breakdowns in three years, will bear the brunt of the decision. Lifts at the Ampthill Estate in Camden Town and Bacton tower in Gospel Oak also risk being put on the blacklist.
Paul Tomlinson, secretary of the Ampthill tenants’ association, said: “It comes down to better maintenance by Camden. That would eliminate 90 per cent of the problems. Our big blocks are 20 floors and it’s very frightening for those trapped in the lifts. At one point it was happening every other day.”
Mr Tomlinson added that the £4.5million refurbishment of the estate, completed last year, had reduced but not solved lift breakdowns on the estate.
Councillor Chris Naylor, Camden’s housing chief, said he was “concerned”.
He said: “There have been cases recently of injury and death connected to lift failure, so I am worried that this response by the fire brigade is not very helpful.
“We are investing £70million in improving our lifts and we should have them running well by 2012. We would love to replace and modernise all our lifts tomorrow. What stops us is lack of money. If we’re going to be shelling out even more in penalties, it will take us even longer to get our lifts fixed.”
A Fire Brigade spokesman said: “This charging scheme is being implemented to incentivise building owners to tackle this problem where it has reached an unacceptable level. We will always attend emergencies where people need to be rescued, but where alternative arrangements to release people shut in lifts are in place, they should be used.”
He added: “Alongside costing the Brigade millions of pounds, these calls could take firefighters away from emergencies like fires.
“The responsibility to make suitable arrangements for lift maintenance and the safe release of anyone shut in lifts is with the owner of a building, not the emergency services.” |
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