A COUNCIL has apologised to residents for not supporting them after a fire broke out in a block of flats.

Residents said they were fuming at the lack of help from Brighton and Hove City Council after the fire in Donald Hall Road on Friday.

They said they were horrified to have not received a phone call or a visit from a member of the council in light of the accident.

Resident Geraldine O’Sullivan said she was incredibly disappointed that she had to make phone calls to ask someone from the council to come to visit. She said the council should have taken the initiative.

Larissa Reed, the council’s executive director for neighbourhoods, communities and housing, said she was happy to take full responsibility for not sending someone over.

She said: “There should have been a presence straight after the fire. The response did not work as we wanted it to. Either the housing services or the emergency planning services should have been sent over and it’s clear that did not happen. Although we would have not called this a major incident, I still respect that it was traumatic and scary to go through. Especially after all we know about the Grenfell Tower crisis.”

Mrs O’Sullivan said on behalf of the residents that they preferred not to be used as “guinea pigs” for the council’s mistakes. An investigation into what happened is ongoing.

Ms Reed said it appeared the on-call officer from the council responsible for resident support had not been contacted about the fire.

Mrs O’Sullivan said, on behalf of the residents at a meeting yesterday, that the “promised” cleaners did not turn up, or if they did, failed do the job properly.

But Ms Reed promised that immediate, specialist cleaning of the building would be arranged straight after the meeting.

They said they would review the current system with regards to on-call officers and make sure all training of staff was up-to-date.

Ms Reed said: “We are going to potentially look in to another layer of support for residents and senior staff.”

Martin Read, head of service and property investment, said a consultation about installing sprinklers in the block of flats would also be arranged.

Council staff also said signage in the building would be revised to offer more advice in an emergency.

Ododo Oafe, head of income involvement and improvement, said: “If the plan had gone to plan then things would have been fine. In this situation, there was a fault in communication.”