Last week, fire service chiefs in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes demanded a say on planning applications for high rise buildings in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017.

Milton Keynes councillor David Hopkins said: “I think it is absolutely imperative that we as a fire authority do lobby strongly...to ensure we have a seat at the table when development proposals for high rise buildings in particular are being brought forward. We can’t be involved retrospectively. We have to be there right at the start.”

Was any sought for the 27-storey block of flats at St Albans Road, approved by the council only last November?

No Watford fire engine will realistically reach higher than the sixth/seventh floor in the event of a fire.

Electrical power outages, as we have seen currently affecting countries that rely on wind turbines, may well result in lift failures, trapping people in high rise buildings.

Should we really be sentencing families and people to isolation in tower blocks?

Watford Borough Council is currently consulting on the Local Plan to 2036. The proposals for future development sites is unbelievable.

Car parks are being hit and the figures involved can only be achieved with more high rise tower blocks.

Have your say on your Watford.

For everyone’s mental wellbeing we need to build communities. Tower blocks are not the answer.

Sue Robb

By email