A TRIAL sprinkler system installed in the town's second tallest building has been dubbed 'monstrous' by a disgruntled resident.

Prior to the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 71 people, Bracknell Forest Homes (BFH) decided to fit sprinklers at Point Royal high-rise on the advice of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Before carrying out the full £100,00 project, the housing association fitted a pilot installation to test and develop the system, while giving occupants of the 17 storey-building a chance to give feedback.

The temporary sprinklers have not gone down well with Point Royal resident Peter Maggs however.

He said: "I walked into a flat with large wooden, handmade imposing trunking in every room that would support the ‘proposed’ sprinkler system.

"My mouth dropped open as I was expecting something nasty like pipes everywhere, but this excessively large, very ugly and shoddy trunking exceeded my worst nightmares.

"How BFH can think that this monstrous thing proposed can be liveable I don’t know.

"Juggling the balance between the cost and happiness of us residents must be a hard task, but I feel that in this case the cost was the only thing considered."

In June Nick Paget-Brown, the Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said there was not a ‘collective view’ among Grenfell residents in favour of sprinklers.

Experts believe a retrofitted £200,000 system could have saved the tower.

Linda Wells, BFH housing and community services director, said: “Resident safety is most important to us and we continually carry out improvements and fire safety reviews.

“Point Royal is a listed building and the sprinkler system is a retro-fit to the original building, so there are some limitations on how the sprinklers can be fitted. The boxing will help to integrate the retro-fit system into the building and we aim to make it as discreet as possible.

“We will invite residents to another meeting when the whole project design has been agreed to give information about the timing and design of the work, and will provide samples of the proposed boxing.”

The sprinkler system proposed uses wall mounted fittings and concealed heads in a bid to reduce the amount of pipework and minimise the visual impact.

A competitive tender process was carried out to select a contractor based on quality and cost.

Residents were contacted about the proposal to install a sprinkler system at Point Royal in January 2017. This followed a process to seek listed building consent for the work.