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Fire Statements – Part Eight – How to fill out the application

October 4, 2021 11:09 am

On the 1^st August 2021, Planning Gateway One was implemented, as an amendment to the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order. It requires the completion of a form called a Fire Statement to be submitted with any planning application for a development which includes a relevant high-rise building.

LWF’s Fire Engineering blog on the changes has outlined the reasons behind it, the process to be followed, who should fill out the form and from Part Six, has concentrated on the contents of the Fire Statement form.

Section 6 is in table format and requires the applicant to provide information on the principles, concepts and approach relating to fire safety that have been applied to the development. In the last blog in the series, we discussed column A of the table.

Fire Statement Form Section 6

Column B requires the applicant to provide the block height for each entry, the number of storeys excluding any below ground level and the number of storeys including those below ground level. Mezzanine floors are counted as a separate storey where their internal floor area is at least 50% of the internal floor area of the largest storey in the building, which is not below ground level.

Measurements should be taken and storeys calculated following the details given in Article 9A of the 2015 Order, and as discussed in LWF’s blog – Fire Statements – Part Two – What are the relevant buildings?

Column C asks for the proposed use of the building and the answer must be selected from the options given:

Residential flats, maisonettes, studios
Residential houses
Residential bedsits, cluster flats
Supported accommodation
Student accommodation
Serviced apartments
Other residential accommodation

Hotel
Shop
Restaurant, Café, Hot food takeaway, drinking establishment
Office, research and development
Industrial, storage or distribution
Care home
Health care

Community use, childcare (not school)
Prison, detention centre
Car parking
Service area
Flexible use

Where a block has more than one use, each use category should be given on a separate line of the table, except where the usage spans more than one storey within the block, in which case this information can be given on one line. Note that this is only applicable where the storeys are identical in terms of the other information provided within columns B to J of the building schedule.

Column D of the building schedule is the last column in the Site Information section of the table. It requires the applicant to state which storeys within the building are used as per the option stated in column C. For example, if a crèche is to be located on the second floor, floor 2 should be indicated in column D on the line where childcare was entered in column C.

Where possible, the proposed use entries should start at the lowest storey within the building and work up through the building floors as the table entries progress.

In part nine of this series, LWF will continue by considering columns E – J of Section 6 of the Fire Statement Form.

Links to all Fire Statement blogs are as follows:

LWF’s blog series on Fire Statements includes information on the type of buildings affected by the changes, details on what information must be included and provides an overview of the application process and form. If you have any queries about your own project or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.

Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 25 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.

All blogs so far on Planning Gateway One and the Fire Statement can be found here

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