The lady from building control pays a visit
Published: Fri, 03/14/14
Yesterday morning I had a phone call from a lady at the building
control department. She was following up on the planning
application because I had not notified her that we were going ahead
with making the shop into a Stav Centre. Okay, it was in the back
of my mind somewhere that I should have got in touch but I have had
enough on my mind as it is. So we agreed to meet at the Stav
Centre at 1230hrs. Right on time the lady from the council, lets
call her Elaine, because that is her name, came in.
Over the next hour she inspected the premises and told us what we
needed to do to make it compliant with building regulations. It
was all a slightly surreal experience. The big issue was the
toilet which needs to be accessible to someone in a wheel chair
apparently. To be accessible it needs to have at least 750 mm of
clearance in front of it, we have 500 mm so I will either need to
move the wall or turn the toilet around 90 degrees and then
relocate the wash hand basin. Wheel chair access in a martial arts
school? Are driving schools allowed to discriminate against
visually impaired people? Then there was the issue of fire
protection for the RSJs which support the roof, these are massive
in that they hold up the reinforced concrete roof. They have to be
protected from fire for up to half an hour so that they don't
weaken and collapse, very sensible I am sure if you are storing
timber or paint or something else that can actually burn. But in a
Stav Centre? What are we going to do? Viking ship cremations?
Then there was the requirement for safety lighting which comes on
if the power goes off as in the case of the fire. There has to be
light so that people can see their way out. Not that it would be
hard to find your way out of a more or less empty space and as for
light, there is a streetlight directly across the road which shines
very brightly in through the window. (Okay, if there is a total
power cut then some battery powered back up lights kicking in might
be a good idea but there hasn't been one of those in Crewkerne
in quite a while.)
What was really weird was that the one thing that I was worried
about and could actually be dangerous was the electrics. The
system was originally installed to a reasonable standard but that
was a long time ago. The circuit breakers are wired fuses rather
than RCD circuit breakers. When I pointed this out to Elaine she
just said that electrics in commercial properties did not come
under the remit of building control and she wasn't interested.
I am glad to say that by coincidence at the same time that Elaine
was telling us what to do an electrician arrived at the request of
the owner of the building and we have agreed to install a new fuse
board and test the circuits properly. So the important stuff that
actually matters will be done too.
So more work to do and it isn't stopping us from teaching there
and holding courses. If you come and train in April you will be
able to admire our disabled compliant toilet and safety lights, I
hope you will be impressed. Next course 5th April, full list of
dates at http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/forthcoming.html
regards
Graham
PS If you haven't seen the video on training with pole weapons
have a look at http://www.iceandfire.org it will only be there
until early next week.