Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.49
Object Name
placard
Title
'End our cladding scandal. CLAD DAG @claddag Leaseholder Disability Action Group @lifebuildings'
Place
Life Buildings, Hulme, Manchester
People
CLAD DAG, Leaseholder Disability Action Group
Events
Cladding Scandal, Grenfell Fire
Description
A laminated placard. The front side has the text 'End Our Cladding Scandal' in yellow on black blocks. Beneath this is a red line drawing of two tower blocks with two red line figures beside them - one is a wheelchair user, the other is using a white cane. The group name 'CLAD DAG Leaseholder Disability Action Group' is written in red around this drawing. A blue side panel carries a social media account name @ Life Buildings.
The reverse shows a meme of the Ever Given container ship caught in the Suez canal with a single digger beside it attempting to dig it out. The huge ship is labeled 'Fire safety scandal' the digger 'Government "loan"'. Below the meme is the text 'Forced loans = gov profit on interest + VAT'. Blue side bars hold the hashtags 'safety doesn't start at 18 metres' and 'recipe for mass bankruptcies'.
This placard was made by a disabled protester in response to the cladding scandal which emerged following the Grenfell Fire in 2017 which killed 72 residents and injured another 70. At Grenfell, the entire building burned down following an electrical fire in a single apartment, as the building was clad in flammable cladding. It became public knowledge that many residential buildings in the UK had been covered in similar flammable cladding, putting residents lives at risk. During fires, lifts are put out of service, so mobility impaired disabled people in high rise buildings are expected to shelter in place on stairwell landings until they can be rescued by fire services, who are not always aware disabled people are waiting for help inside the building. This puts disabled residents at greater risk of dying during fires, either from injury directly caused by fire, or from smoke inhalation.
In buildings with privately owned 'leasehold' flats, lease holders were expected to contribute substantial amounts of money to remove and replace cladding, despite it not being their fault the building owner (freeholder) had chosen to install dangerous cladding. By 2020 17.2% of affected lease holders were exploring bankruptcy options due to these costs. The placard reference to 18 metres refers to government funding to replace cladding only on buildings over 18 metres tall. The placard is also interesting for it's use of a meme - a generic picture reused with captioned text applied to different situations, typically shared on social media. These have become more common at protests during the 2010s and 2020s, showing internet culture bleeding into the physical world.
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