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Candidate correspondence

Ewan Cameron's letter to Camden Council.

The Conservative candidate for Holborn and St Pancras has asked Camden Council for urgent, written answers about the action taken since Joshua's death and the safety of comparable residential barriers across the borough.

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Holborn & St Pancras Conservatives

By hand & email: Sagal Abdi-Wali, Leader of Camden Council; Anna Wright, Lead Member for Better Homes; and Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing.

Re: Urgent request for written answers following the death of Joshua Robbins at Holland and Thurstan Dwellings on 29 January 2026

I am writing to you together, as Leader of the Council, Lead Member for Better Homes and Director of Housing, because a preventable building-safety death has already occurred in this borough and I need to know, without further delay, what Camden has done to satisfy itself that no other resident is living behind a comparable untested or corroded balustrade or barrier.

As a candidate in the By-election I have been asked by Fiona Garrett, the Mum of Joshua Robbins who died when a communal safety railing failed at his home in Holland and Thurstan Dwellings, Holborn. Joshua was 23. Joshua had leant on a railing that was meant to keep him safe. It gave way. The police investigation and inquest process remain ongoing. I will not prejudice those processes, and I am advised that the answers to the below questions should not prejudice those processes.

Holland and Thurstan Dwellings is in Camden. It is owned and managed by Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA). That does not remove Camden's duties as the local housing authority. The Council is responsible for the safety of people living in this borough, whether they occupy a council home, a housing-association home or a privately rented home. After a communal safety barrier has failed and a young man has died, the public is entitled to know what the Council did in the days and weeks that followed, and what it can now prove about the condition of similar barriers across the borough.

I ask for written answers to the following questions.

Question 1

Joshua Robbins died on 29 January 2026 when a communal safety railing failed at Holland and Thurstan Dwellings. What did the Council's political and housing leadership do immediately after 29 January 2026 to satisfy itself that no other resident in Camden — whether in council, housing-association or privately rented homes — was living behind a comparable untested or corroded balustrade or barrier? What written instruction, risk assessment or borough-wide makesafe direction was issued in the days and weeks after Joshua's death?

Question 2

Since 29 January 2026, what formal steps has Camden taken in respect of ISHA and other registered housing providers operating in Camden - including inspection of all comparable high-rise housing; service of HHSRS notices; requests for inspection, testing, maintenance and verification records; and any agreement on a risk-based testing programme for residential balustrades and all safety equipment- and how has the Council satisfied itself that it now knows that balustrades of similar age and construction are today performing their intended safety function?

Question 3

What programme of competent inspection, load or condition testing, maintenance, independent verification and recording of residential balustrades and barriers has Camden required, funded or enforced across the borough since 29 January 2026? How many homes have been physically checked, and how many defects have been made safe?

As confirmed, I am a candidate in this By-election, and after both the Green candidate and the Leader of the Council discussed Joshua's death at a By-election hustings event yesterday, it is fair and reasonable to require these questions be answered well in advance of 8 October, Polling Day.

I respectfully ask on behalf of Joshua's mum:

  1. By 5pm Monday 28 September: a named officer, a confirmation that the three questions are being treated as a formal request, and either answers or a dated holding note listing what exists / what is being retrieved.
  2. By 5pm Wednesday 30 September: the substantive answers, or a public statement of what cannot yet be answered and why.

Yours sincerely,Ewan CameronConservative CandidateHolborn & St Pancras

cc: Dan Hawthorn, Executive Director of Homes and Communities

Printed and promoted by Jack Barwell, on behalf of Ewan Cameron, both at Holborn and St Pancras Conservatives, 1a Heath Hurst Road, London NW3 2RU.