The preliminary report of the Docklands Safety Audit was presented to the full City Council this morning — forty-seven pages, bound in grey card, documenting the condition of seventy-two vacant commercial properties across the waterfront district from Greystone Wharf to Harrowgate Pier.

Its central recommendation is straightforward and, depending on your perspective, either overdue or onerous: a mandatory annual fire safety and structural inspection regime for all commercial premises in the city, funded by a registration fee on property owners.

Fire Marshal Edwin Hale, who coordinated the audit alongside the Metropolitan Constabulary and the Municipal Revenue Office, presented the findings in person. He spoke for nineteen minutes without notes.

The numbers are as follows. Of seventy-two properties assessed over four weeks, eighteen were found to have irregularities: five with lapsed fire safety certificates, four with no documentation whatsoever, three with falsified certificates, two with expired insurance, two with unauthorised habitation, and two with structural concerns requiring further assessment.

“Eighteen out of seventy-two is a rate of one in four,” Hale told the chamber. “That is not an acceptable rate for a city that calls itself modern.”

The falsified certificates remain under active Constabulary investigation. The Southgate Safety Consultants case — the ghost compliance firm that issued certificates bearing the forged signatures of retired inspectors — has expanded. Hale confirmed that at least two additional properties have been linked to the scheme since his last briefing.

The most significant structural finding concerns the Harbourfront Parade warehouse, where a compromised eastern load-bearing wall prompted emergency shoring on Wednesday. Structural engineer Helen Draper of Hallam & Stroud reported that the three-day shoring operation is on schedule; fourteen steel props and four exterior buttresses were in place by this morning, and work is expected to conclude tomorrow. Draper, who was in the public gallery, confirmed to this reporter afterwards that the building is now stable.

“Stable is not the same as sound,” she said. “The wall will need permanent reinforcement. That is a conversation the building’s owner will need to have.”

The building’s owner, through the firm of Crayle, Whitford & Associates, has filed an appeal against the 2.35-million-florin vacant building levy with the Municipal Tribunal. A hearing date has been set for 14 April. Solicitor Edmond Crayle described the audit report as “a preliminary document that does not constitute a legal finding.”

Councilwoman Ida Pryce, who proposed the audit on 19 February in the wake of the Greystone Wharf fire, said she would introduce a motion at the next full council session to implement the report’s inspection regime.

“One in four,” Pryce said. “That is the number that will stay with me.”

Councilman Aldric Voss, who opposed the audit on procedural grounds when it was first proposed, was seen reading the report during Hale’s presentation. He did not speak during the session but was observed afterwards in conversation with Pryce in the corridor. A source close to Voss said he considers the inspection proposal “reasonable in principle, pending cost analysis.”

The report also recommends the establishment of a digital register of all commercial property safety certificates, accessible to the public. Hale noted that the current system — paper certificates held by property owners, with copies filed at the Fire Marshal’s Office — “has not prevented the forgery of at least five documents that we know of.”

Council Speaker Desmond Falk received the report formally and scheduled a debate for the next regular session. “Forty-seven pages is a thorough document,” he said. “The council will give it thorough consideration.”