I am unlikely to to witness this by getting out more Colin. I am out a great deal as it is and see first hand for myself the problems on the ground and cannot see how setting up another large unwieldy and remote tier of enforcement will help improve or even maintain standards of fire safety in the shops pubs and warehouses of the UK.
I speak to local managers at the sharp end every day, I see the pressures they are under in terms of space and staffing and building management overheads and the knock on consequences for basic fire precautions at the point of delivery. I know exactly how large brewery chains, large retail chains and remotely controlled convenience stores work and what the Board demand from their local management.
Local enforcement by local fire services is difficult for business to predict and for them to control, they do not know when they may get a visit. They respond quickly to local problems and have the ability to hit the company hard. They have no vested interests other than fire safety standards within their area.
The big companies would be much happier with the fire services off their backs and instead to work with a large, remote enforcement regime that is slow to respond, will work to a pre arranged inspection program and that has its eye on National rather than local politics. In particular one that they can control, that they can have in their pocket in the same way that big business sometimes controls and influences approved building inspectors.
I would like to see proper evidence of the alleged failures and inconsistency by the fire services and then see if we can fix the machine we have before we try and invent something new. I wager half of the critics are repeating hearsay and probably quarter of the rest are frustrated because they have got away with something in one area and cant get away with the same thing somewhere else.
Refreshing to see you are supporting the creation of a further tier of civil servants though, even if it is at the expense of the fire service.
