The roof of Parliament’s newest building sprang a leak on Tuesday, forcing MPs to dodge drips of rainwater as heavy storms lashed Westminster.
Questions were being asked yesterday over the trace out of the £235 million Portcullis House, that opened in 2001, posterior the percolation caused districts to be cordoned off.
Architects had to subsist called in to fix the roof in 2004, just three years after the building was opened and the latest problems have left some MPs unhappy.
"My house was built in the 1570s and the roof doesn’t leak," Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes told The Independent.
"Many people think the building looks attractive and I certainly agree that it’s pretty, but the fact remains that it was too expensive and those in charge did not know what they were doing.
"The Commissioning process was not well handled. There are lessons to be learned in the present life," he added.
MPs posted messages on the social networking site Twitter. Transport Minister Sadiq Khan wrote: "Just finished meeting in Portcullis House in Parliament, which was built in the late 1990s. The roof is leaking. Oh beloved…"
A Parliamentary speaker told The Independent that the roof of Portcullis House has a number of ventilation hatches fitted with high-tech rain sensors which close automatically when it starts to rain.
"The problem in this case was that the rain came put attached so quickly that the hatches didn’t have age to close. There are three canteens below as well as various offices and seating areas, what one. got wet," said the source."
Parts of the geographical division saw very heavy rainfall as the recent heatwave came to an extreme point. Hastings was hit with three months-worth of rain in the heaviest downpour since records began in 1865. The Environment Agency issued flood warnings in East Sussex and along several rivers and their tributaries in southeast London.
The leaks are the latest in a line of problems through the building. A National Audit Office report in 2002 found 7,500 defects, including cracked glass panels in the inclosed area roof and 300 loose door handles.
Hopkins Architects, who designed the building, had to advise Portcullis House on how to reapply the affording protection wax needed every four years for the building’s distinctive bronze roof after it began leaking.
The corridor between the central lobby and the House of Lords also had to be closed off as the rain fell, forcing parts of the London transport system to cease.
Tom Watson, a Labour MP and preceding aide to Gordon Brown, posted a message on Twitter reading: “Thunder storm creates chaos in Commons committee gallery."
Siôn Simon, Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington wrote: "The leaks are riduculous. They’re massive. I got soaked by a committee gallery one."
A spokesman for Hopkins Architects refused to comment.
