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

October 18, 2021 10:50 am

On the 1^st August 2021, Planning Gateway One was introduced, (as an amendment to the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order). This change necessitates a form called a Fire Statement to be submitted with a planning application for any development including a relevant high-rise building.

LWF’s blog series on the Fire Statements has outlined the background and implementation of Planning Gateway One, looked at the process to be followed and who should fill out the form. The blogs from Part Six onwards relate to the content of the Fire Statement form itself.

Section 6 of the Fire Statement application form requests Site Information. Part Ten of the blog series begins at the third column of the table – resident safety information – which contains sub-columns h-j.

Fire Statement Form Section 6

Section 6 – Resident safety information – column h) relates to the approach to evacuation that the proposals have been designed around. The stated approach to evacuation will be considered in relation to three other columns of required information within the Section 6 table:

Column C, proposed use
Column E, standards relating to fire safety and approach applied
Column J, accessible housing provided

Where more information or explanation might be helpful, it can be provided within Section 8 of the form. The response to 6/h is multiple-choice:

Simultaneous
Phased
Staged
Stay put
Progressive horizontal
Delayed

Section 6 – column i) relates to the use of automatic fire suppression systems. Where any automatic suppression systems are intended as a part of the fire safety provision, they should be indicated in this column of the table. The answer is multiple choice with the ability to give further information as necessary in Section 8 of the form. The options are as follows:

Yes, residential sprinklers – full (Guidance document states in accordance with BS EN 9251:2014 Fire sprinkler systems for domestic and residential occupancies, but this was withdrawn and superseded by BS 9251:2021). This option would indicate that a sprinkler system is to be provided throughout the proposed use and storey in question.
Yes, residential sprinklers – partial (designed in accordance with BS 9251, as above). This option would indicate that a sprinkler system is not provided throughout the whole use and storey in question, but only in parts.
Yes, commercial sprinklers – full (designed in accordance with BS EN 12845: 2015 + A1 2019). This option would indicate that a sprinkler system is provided throughout the proposed use and storey in question.
Yes, commercial sprinklers – partial (designed as above in accordance with BS EN 12845). This option would indicate that a sprinkler system is not provided throughout the proposed use and storey in question, but only in part
Yes, other. This answer indicates that an alternative suppression system is proposed, information on which should be given in part 8 of the form.

It should be noted that if no fire suppression system is planned for the development, the ‘none’ option should be selected in Section 6, column i).

In part eleven of this series, LWF will continue by looking at the final sub-column of Section 6, accessible housing provision.

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.

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