Safety patrols at Gloucester flats complex after fire defects found

Wardens are patrolling Merchants Quay throughout the day to ensure a fire does not break out

Safety wardens must monitor a complex of 48 flats at all times after fire safety defects were discovered.

Faults were found in cavity barriers in the external walls of Merchants Quay in Gloucester, the builders have revealed.

An alarm system will be installed this month and residents will not pay for the works if building regulations were breached when the homes were built.

Crest Nicholson, which built the flats between October 2010 and early 2012, is paying for the safety patrols in full.

The apartment block was built on the site of the former Merchants Quay shopping centre.

A Crest Nicholson spokesperson said the company was in discussions with the original designer of the building about correcting the defects.

It has also commissioned a report from a fire consultant "to provide further assurance" that any work done is appropriate, they said.