Sprinklers to go into Bristol's 59 tower blocks

Castlegate House in Brislington will have the first sprinklers installed

Sprinklers will be installed inside flats in Bristol City Council's 59 tower blocks over five years at the cost of £7.3m.

High-rise blocks with the most older and disabled people will get sprinklers first, along with those with single stairwells.

Housing cabinet member Paul Smith said council housing was operating "in the shadow of Grenfell".

The work will start with Castlegate House in Brislington.

Seventy-two people died and more than 70 others were injured in the blaze that destroyed Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017.

Council tenants' rent

Although none of the 59 high-rise blocks have the form of cladding which ignited at Grenfell Tower Mr Smith said, there was "no room for complacency".

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Smith said most of the money from council tenants' rent over the next financial year would be "spent on maintaining and repairing its existing 27,000 homes".

Every bin room in the council's blocks now has sprinklers, but work will soon begin on getting the vital safety equipment into residents' flats.

The initial works will cost £300,000 with a total of £1m to be spent the following year and £2m pencilled in for each of the three years after that up to 2024.