At least 100 people have been forced to leave their homes after a building was found to be structurally unsafe.
Families at a block of flats in Woking, Surrey, were told to get out after they were handed a letter informing them the building is ‘suffering from structural defects and is currently not safe to be occupied’.
Some residents have been put in emergency accommodation at hotels and others have been asked to live with relatives.
Engineers discovered discovered the issue at the Eastgate building, near Woking railway station, on November 16.
By the following day, families with young children were being turfed out by ‘around 15 people with clipboards’ as a ‘precautionary measure’.
It comes just days after hundreds of people were evacuated from a building in Bristol – also because it’s at risk of collapse.
Among those being asked to leave was Kaska Badylak who lives with her husband and two daughters, aged five and 12.
They have been moved into the nearby Travelodge but Kaska says she had to cancel shifts at the care home where she works because of the lack of notice she was given to leave.
Kaska said she has since found out that her stay at the hotel has been extended until at least December 2.
The mum-of-two said they have no facilities to cook with or wash clothes and that her daughters are now ‘very upset and agitated’.
Neither Kaska nor her husband drive so when she was offered a hotel in Guildford she had to turn it down because it would mean she could not get her children to school or get to work herself.
She added that because she is from Poland and her husband is from Pakistan, the couple has a limited family network nearby.
‘It’s a more difficult situation,’ she said. ‘Some people have family [around] so they can go stay or they cook with their family but we do not have anyone, so it’s a very difficult situation at the moment. Very stressful.’
Some residents claim they have been offered hotels as far away as Chertsey, Addlestone, or Camberley.
Another resident – who asked to not be named – said: ‘What’s puzzling us is if the building is in imminent risk of collapse and we’ve been asked to evacuate, why haven’t the groundfloor retail units been asked to evacuate?
‘Why did Station Approach not close to traffic and pedestrians? It’s right beside the mainline railway.’
In a letter from Southern Housing, who manage the building, residents were told ‘your building is suffering from structural defects and is currently not safe to be occupied’.
The letter read: ‘We want to ensure no unnecessary risk is taken with your safety. It’s why we’re asking everyone to evacuate Centrium 1 in the interests of your safety.
‘We realise this will be very unsettling to hear and we will do everything we can to support you at this difficult time.’
‘This is a precautionary and, at present, temporary measure, but the advice we have received is clear.’
It claimed the safest approach is to evacuate the building to allow for further investigations and said Southern Housing has therefore made the difficult decision to ask residents to leave the building ‘straight away’.
The Eastgate building is understood to have around 60 flats with a mixture of one and two-bedroom homes.
Paul Hackett, CEO of Southern Housing, said: ‘I want to express how sorry I am to residents that we have had to take this action.
‘Our main priority is the safety of our residents, and we had no choice but to ask them to leave their homes on Friday (November 17). I want to stress that we’ve made this decision with our residents’ well-being in mind, and we are doing everything we can to minimise the disruption.
‘I understand this news is distressing, and I empathise with everyone affected and I’m sorry for the uncertainty this will cause our residents.’
He added: ‘This is a complex situation, and we had to make a quick decision based on the new information available to us provided by our technical and legal advisors.
‘We don’t have all the answers yet, and we will work tirelessly to fully understand the extent of the structural issues in the building and what steps to take next. We’ll continue to support our residents and help them navigate through this challenging time.
‘We will work with residents to find alternative housing for everyone, and each resident will have a dedicated member of our team to ensure their specific needs are addressed, both now and in the future.’
At least 100 people have been turfed out.
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