Families turfed out Bradford homes due to fire safety issues

A Prohibition Notice was served on a building containing nine flats, above a row of three shops, in Darley Street on Tuesday at 5pm by West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (WYFRS).

Seven of the living spaces were occupied by families, while two were vacant.

Those residents have been rehoused.

A picture of a notice, said to be from the flats, was posted on social media and it stated: “Important notice to all persons.

“The fire service has served an emergency Prohibition Order on the whole building.

“This means that the building in its current state is not safe for habitation.

“The order comes into effect immediately.

“If you are an occupant, you must seek alternative accommodation.”

A picture of a notice, said to be from the flats, was posted on social media (Image: Facebook)

The notice then provided contact details for Bradford Council’s Housing Options Service and advised people to get in touch with them.

It added: “Anyone found to be occupying the accommodation will be in breach of the order and may be prosecuted by this authority.”

The Telegraph & Argus understands the three businesses below are not impacted and it is the flats above that are the subject of the notice.

There are three flats on each of the three floors above the shops.

WYFRS found a number of unsafe “building defects” when visiting the site, including no fire separation between the businesses below and the residential spaces, no means of raising the alarm, poor fire exit signage, and no emergency lighting.

A full statement from WYFRS said: “After attending the premises in Darley Street, Bradford, it was decided a Prohibition Notice would be served.

“The building is three floors of flats above a row of three shops, this is nine flats in total of which seven were occupied by families.

“There are many building defects including no fire separation between commercial and residential, no means of raising the alarm, poor fire exit signage and no emergency lighting.

“The Prohibition Notice was served at 5pm on Tuesday, and the Housing Standards team were in attendance and rehoused the residents of the flats.”

Nine flats above a row of three shops in Darley Street have been condemned due to fire safety issues (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said: “A notice has been issued by the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority at these privately-owned flats on Darley Street in Bradford city centre, prohibiting residential occupation because of fire safety issues.

“Bradford Council’s Housing Options team will continue to support any occupiers who may now need temporary accommodation.”

Permission to turn the upper floors into flats, as well as plans for new shopfronts and amendments to the rear to allow access to the accommodation, was granted on July 15, 2019.

The proposals for the site – which is situated in the city centre conservation area – included the creation of a “keynote entrance” to serve the flats and bin and cycle storage, which would be accessed from the rear passageway.

The Design and Access Statement for the application said: “The flats will be created to a good standard under the relaxed planning regime set out in the Bradford Local Development Order No 2.”

Main access to the flats would be from the rear passage but an alternative route was also proposed with the construction of a corridor to the Darley Street frontage, according to the plans.

The application was approved despite a planning officer raising concerns in their report about a “lack of detail” in particular sections of the plans.

But later in the same document, this was deemed “sufficient to support” with a pre-installed condition to which the agent had agreed, “as they will ultimately be refined by the end user”.

This most recent building condemnation is the latest in a spate of living spaces in Bradford city centre being evacuated in recent years.

Merchant Court – a block of apartments in Little Germany – was the subject of a Prohibition Notice by WYFRS at the end of March this year.

This was because an “intolerable nature of building defects” had been identified, according to the fire service.

A total of 17 residents met with the Council’s Housing Standard and Housing Options service to find alternative accommodation in that case.