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

November 8, 2021 12:25 pm

On 1^st August 2021, as amendment to the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order was made, known as Planning Gateway One. As a result of the changes, a form called a Fire Statement should be submitted with a planning application for any development including a relevant high-rise building.

LWF’s blog series on the Fire Statements has looked at background, implementation and, from part six onwards, how the Fire Statement form should be filled out.

In part thirteen of this series, LWF looks at Section 10 and 11 of the Fire Statement form, both of which relate to emergency road vehicle access and water supplies for firefighting purposes.

Fire Statement Form Section 10

Section 10 of the Fire Statement Form allows up to 200 words in explanation of the fire service plan(s) which are requested in Section 14 of the form.

The guidance and standards documents which have informed the proposals for Fire Service access and facilities should be provided, relating to the following elements:

Road entrances for emergency vehicles and their proposed routes within the site
Where Fire Service vehicle appliances are to be sited for firefighting purposes
Access points to buildings for firefighting personnel
Any dry or wet risers
Evacuation assembly point locations
Any cores and lifts (those designed as firefighting lifts or evacuation lifts)
Locations of water supplies for firefighting purposes – g. hydrants – and the associated distances

Any information relating to the fire service site plan not contained within the plan at Section 14 or requiring explanation should be included in Section 10 of the fire statement form.

Fire Statement Form Section 11

Section 11 of the fire statement form relates specifically to emergency road vehicle access. In no more than 200 words, information should be provided on the approach taken by emergency road vehicles to access the proposed site entrance or access points.

In addition, Section 11 contains a question with a YES/NO answer.

Is the emergency vehicle tracking route to the siting points for appliances clear and unobstructed?

Siting points are indicated on the fire service site plan and the potential obstructions that should be taken into account might include pinch points (potential areas of congestion), landscape features, podium access or other traffic.

Part Fourteen of this blog series will continue by looking at Section 12 of the Fire Statement Form onwards.

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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