County of Merseyside Act 1980 s53

[AnthonyB]

This Act is too old to be on the Government on-line legislation portal, but need to know if anyone has the text of section 53 in full that can be reproduced.

I have a site where the FRS are considering using it to require sprinklers in a compartment that would otherwise be within the unsprinklered compartment limits of ADB.

Do the Acts allow appeal or are they prescriptive such that if the FRS says you must have sprinklers you have no choice.

Section 53 escaped the repeals and revocations of the FSO unlike the other fire sections of the act.

[kurnal]

Hi Anthony
Like you I could not find it in legislation.gov and that is odd because many of its sister acts of similar age are here. However it is mentioned in the Procedural guidance document so presumably it is still in force and usually these acts were pretty well identical in respect of large storage buildings and firefighting.
ttp://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/133220.pdf

I have a copy of Manchester Act and have recently researched the situation in respect of the currency of that act on behalf of a client, if you would like details of the outcome and a letter I sent to the client summarising the position please email me.

As you know Eric Pickles has undertaken to revoke these local enactments but there appears to be little movement so far.

[thebuildinginspector]

Yes, the Act is applicable to industrial and storage buildings only that are greater than 7,000m3 in the County of Merseyside.  I've dealt with a few applications where this has been applicable and the Local Fire Authority have been receptive to alternative proposals such as smoke venting or even a calculation of the expected fire size at the estimated point of Fire Service intervention, in lieu of the installation of sprinklers.

I don't have a copy of the Act to hand, but I know someone in our office has an electronic copy - I'll ask around to try and get hold of one for you.  Interestingly, after looking through the BRE website, I found a Building Regulations Division Project titled, "Effects of Local Acts on Fire Risks" which states in the summary, "Local Acts have no statistically significant impact as far as life safety aspects are concerned"

As I'm only assessing the application for life safety, (under the Building Regs) I don't understand why these Acts are still being wheeled out, if it's been proven that they have no effect.

If you email me, or send me your email address, I'll email over anyone a copy of either or both

[Tom Sutton]

The Merseyside Act must have been in force in 2006 it was amended by the RR(FS)O it did not involve s53. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/schedule/2/made