I do sympathise with Council inspecting officers. They have to enforce standards and when it comes to fire safety, the word standard seems to be an inappropriate one to apply. We use TBE, equivalent to ADB but differing in places. TBE, recognises other means of compliance including BS9999 again with different criteria. So when they audit, unless they know the methodology employed to arrive at a level of fire safety that would meet building regulations, they cannot be prescriptive.
Utterly ignoring the FRA provided by a professional company, the enforcing officer required door widths in a very large club to be increased. He insisted they should be 1050mm when they were actually providing a clear exit width of 1000mm. The club bindly adopted a deferential attitude and incurred great expense in altering the doors. The original assessor has been able to show that the door widths need have been no more than 950mm based on occupancy. What a mess fire safety is in! Far too many cooks!
