Turning an external escape into a community garden.

[Tom Sutton]

Question.

I am after some advice about an idea I had to make use of our external fire escape. We are a 9 story mixed commercial and residential community building. We have an internal and external escape route serving all floors. The external escape route is the residential primary escape while the internal is the commercial primary means of escape but it's possible for anyone to go by any route if they need to.
 
As I say, we're a community building so we have people living and working in the same space. We are landlocked so we don't have any outside space, apart from the roof. I had the idea of using the fire escape for a community garden.

Is this allowed? We'd not have any pots on the stairs or landings, only fixed to the railings and any pots would be metal.

Answer.

It could be workable if you get a competent person to review this for you on site.

You have 2 separate escape routes which is beneficial as you won't get two seats of fire so I wouldn't say it needs to be sterile. Your exit capacity (width of route) must be ensured so this could be achieved somehow.
 
Limited number of people and exit width not compromised.

Not having practical experience of risk assessment for many years my response to the question was to reconsider the proposals, too many possible problem both fire safety and health and safety. My concerns were regarding obstruction and trip hazard, was I being OTT.

[kurnal]

Sounds like a mix of commercial and residential premises without separation? The answer to the community garden should be no for all the obvious reasons - obstructions, trip hazards, housekeeping, management, lighting etc etc. They want to make use of the external fire escape? Answer is use it as an external fire escape and value its contribution to your safety especially in what sounds like a compromised building. There are more questions than answers here.