Mr. Sam Doran:

We went out to tender three times over two years. Three times I have been told that we would have the grant within seven days. Three times I organised the builder to start. When I went to draw down the grant the first time, I was told they did not realise that if we were getting more than 50% funding from the Government, we had to go on eTenders, so it was knocked back after doing a year of work. We got to that point. The building was built without fire doors in the halls because they are long halls, which means there is inadequate firestopping. As was said earlier, there should be a 60-minute fire break to get people out of the building.

The interim scheme was supposed to be for emergency fire alarms and emergency lighting in the corridors, so there would be 60 minutes to get people out of the building to ensure they were safe. The most important thing was the fire alarms for early warning. No money has been paid out. I know buildings that do not have fire alarms. In buildings like ours, half a fire alarm system was put in or, in other words, it was not put in where it should have been and it was all done wrong. People are living in total danger. I have been at this full-time for two years and have not got anywhere.