Almost two years after the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, secret documents obtained by the Greens NSW have revealed hundreds of buildings in the City of Sydney are at risk from flammable cladding.
The list includes prominent buildings such as the Central Park development at Broadway, the Strand Arcade, Galleries Shopping Centre and the QVB. Other sites include 18 buildings at the University of Sydney including lecture theatres, a child care centre and student housing.
The documents were obtained by the Greens NSW under Freedom of Information laws and detail how only a fraction of the buildings identified as at risk have even been assessed. This failure is a direct result of the State Government's refusal to make property owners assess the risk or provide necessary resources to councils so they could undertake an assessment themselves.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said:
"This is failed regulation by a government that refuses to take meaningful action. They have just handed the whole mess to local councils without providing any new resources or powers to fix it.
"In the City of Sydney alone, there is a list of more than 340 properties that are at potential risk from flammable cladding - but the Coalition Government is doing nothing about it.
"Councils are in an impossible position being given lists with dozens or hundreds of at-risk properties, with no details about the nature of the risk and no resources to undertake the analysis themselves.
"This is a ticking time bomb for councils and property owners alike.
"We need to immediately revisit the regulations and either require owners to properly assess and address the risk or give councils fresh powers and resources to do it for them.
"A number of these buildings are prominent public buildings including child care centres, student housing, shopping centres and sporting facilities - this goes well beyond private apartments and the public safety risk is obvious," Mr Shoebridge said.
