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The wall which collapsed in high winds
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Collapsed wall was
‘due to be tested’
Boy died in area singled out for survey says council
THE estate wall which collapsed in last month’s storms, killing two year-old Saurav Ghai, was in an area singled out by Camden Council for a special condition survey, the New Journal has learned.
Consultant surveyors were drafted in by the Town Hall to check estates and council properties in the Gospel Oak housing district as recently as September.
The patch includes the Wendling estate and the boundary wall in Southampton Road that collapsed on top of little Saurav two weeks ago.
He died in hospital shortly after being crushed under the falling bricks.
Camden’s housing chiefs have declined to answer press queries about the tragedy, saving their responses to the most critical questions surrounding Saurav’s death for the police and the Health and Safety Executive.
Detectives have discussed whether there is enough evidence to mount a manslaughter case.
A senior council press official said last night (Wednesday) that the council hoped the investigation would be completed as soon as possible for the sake of Saurav’s family. She added that questions asked by the New Journal, such as how many times bits of the wall had fallen down in the past, could not be answered.
But an internal report digested by council officials and councillors this week confirms that estates in Gospel Oak were at the centre of a stock survey pilot scheme aimed at discovering the condition of Camden’s property.
The project is scheduled to be finished by the end of February, although roughly only 70 per cent has so far been completed.
The council would not say whether the Wendling wall was part of the stock that had already been checked.
Conservative ward councillor Keith Sedgwick said: “I raised this as an issue last year.
“I have concerns about the way that the council’s housing stock is surveyed. In the past only a small sample has been taken of the stock and that doesn’t always give a full picture.”
Cllr Sedgwick was the only councillor to raise questions about the condition of Camden’s estates and boundary walls at last Monday’s full council meetings.
He added: “They might have made Gospel Oak the pilot scheme because we were raising problems with the estates and had concerns about the methodology.”
The council report, signed off by housing director Neil Litherland, said: “A pilot exercise to test methodology was carried out in Gospel Oak and the main survey of general needs housing, hostel accommodation and commercial properties started in September 2006.”
Saurav’s relatives who gathered at the family home in Parkhill Mews, Belsize Park, last week have appealed for privacy. They have opened a book of condolences at St Dominic’s Priory, the church where they worshipped and just seconds away from the scene of the tragedy.
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