Residents to move from fire risk sheltered housing

Stanton House in Cambridge has 33 flats across two floors, Cambridge City Council said

Residents are to be moved from a sheltered housing building after "substantial" fire safety concerns were raised.

Cambridge City Council said anyone living at Stanton House, on Christchurch Street, Cambridge, would be found alternative accommodation.

Officers said safety was "paramount" and a 24-hour "waking watch" had been put in place to assist with an evacuation in the event of a fire, at a weekly cost of £2,025.

The authority is considering redeveloping the site and will move people out while plans are being considered.

'Essential maintenance'

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, at a housing scrutiny committee meeting, Council officers told a housing scrutiny committee meeting that the authority had originally planned to link the redevelopment of Stanton House with a new-build project on East Road, in order to move people into the new scheme.

It said estimated costs of £635,000 were needed to complete essential maintenance works at Stanton House, but officers said it was not an investment the council would want to put into a building that "does not have a longer term future within [its] portfolio".

In total £333,000 has been put aside to cover the decanting payments it will make to people being moved out of the building.

An expected report on the options for redeveloping Stanton House is set to be published in September.

Harmony Birch, a tenant representative, said the building should be replaced with new homes for older people.

Officers said there was other sheltered housing in the city where they could move the people to and it needed to understand what types of housing older people wanted.