Plans have been submitted to remove potentially dangerous cladding at two apartment blocks in Reading.

"Potentially combustible" cladding will be removed from parts of the buildings that make up The Meridian apartment block on Kenavon Drive by the River Kennet.

And cladding at the Honister and Hewitt buildings on Chatham Square, 20-40 Alfred Street, will be removed and replaced with "suitable non-combustible cladding".

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The Meridian

The cladding at The Meridian will be replaced with new non-combustible cladding, under plans from the The Meridian Residents Management Company.

The Meridian site is made up of four blocks, but the works will only take place at blocks A, B and C.

The potentially dangerous cladding will be removed from the high-level perimeter of blocks A & C at The Meridian on Kenavon Drive as well as the perimeter of the small plant room located on the roof of Block B.

Replacement panels will match the existing cladding.

You can view the application by visiting here.

Honister and Hewitt

At the Honister and Hewitt apartment blocks, external rainscreen cladding, a brick cavity wall, render wall system and balcony and
roof terrace decking will be replaced.

An external wall survey determined that unsuitable materials were present
in more than one of the wall systems in use.

The changes are being proposed to meet the government’s Advice Note 14, which provides guidance for building owners with non-ACM materials in their external wall systems, including cladding and insulation.

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Advice Note 14, which was issued in 2018 following the Grenfell Tower tragedy the year before, gives strong guidance to owners of buildings above 18 metres to ensure external wall systems are safe.

This includes advice that cladding and insulation must contain materials of limited combustibility or meet the Building Research Establishment’s BR 135 classification.

You can view the plans here.

The consultation period has now ended for the plans and Reading Borough Council (RBC) will decide whether to approve the application in the near future.

Buildings with dangerous Grenfell-style cladding in Reading

Four buildings in Reading have been found to have dangerous Grenfell-style ACM cladding.

These are:

Hanover House, Kings Road (apartments)

St Lawrence House, Abbey Square (social housing)

Queen’s Court, Queens Walk (student accommodation)

Crossway Point, Norwood Road (social housing)

The cladding at Lawrence House was removed at the end of 2019, while the cladding at Queen’s Court was removed in March earlier this year.

Work to remove and replace the cladding at Crossway Point was paused due to Covid-19 and is now expected to be finished in December 2020, while plans to replace the cladding at Hanover House were approved in October.