Fire rules put B&Bs at risk
DAMAGING and unnecessary fire regulations are threatening to drive hundreds of small Westcountry tourist businesses to close, at a cost of £100 million to the region's economy.
Home-based businesses like bed and breakfast guest houses – the backbone of the South West's holiday industry – are at risk from updated regulations that critics believe are inconsistent and burdensome. Now a campaign, Fire Safety Sense, has been launched with the support of nine national tourism organisations in an effort to have the rules overturned.
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Under the regulations some B&B owners complain they are being forced to spend thousands of pounds on safety measures including installing five different kinds of fire extinguisher, lines of LED lighting to mark fire escape routes and weather-protected external stairways to replace ladders. For many, the cost of complying with the rules makes it uneconomic to stay in business and they are simply shutting up shop.
According to tourism leader Malcolm Bell, chief executive of South West Tourism, staying visitors provide £2.5 billion to the local economy and the B&B and small tourism industry accounts for about 10 per cent of that – £250 million.
He said: "The loss of business through the fire safety rules could lead to a loss of about £100 million to the economy as people go to stay elsewhere."
Critics say the new rules have led to widespread confusion, with some people not even aware that there had been changes or where to find out about them. But assistant chief officer Pete Smith, who is in charge of community safety at Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said every effort had been made to ensure everyone had been made aware of the new rules.
"These people are running a business. If you have bed and breakfast, then you want to make sure you have a food hygiene certificate to cover the food provision. In the same way, these rules ensure guests are as safe as possible.
"Both the Government and fire service have publicised the new rules and how to apply them. Tourism is important in the Westcountry and we want to make sure that compliance of these rules is as easy as possible."
Campaign leaders are now calling on the Government to adopt a more "common-sense" approach to the regulations which were first introduced in 2006. One of the organisations supporting the campaign is the Bed and Breakfast Association. Its chief executive, David Weston, said: "Many small B&Bs have already closed rather than substantially alter their homes or spend a five-figure sum to offer hospitality to a couple of guests – and the guests themselves are choosing B&Bs for their more home-from-home qualities.
"All our members are very fire-safety conscious, but we don't see why commercial fire systems and fire doors are necessary, for instance, in a cottage which already has smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, and a careful owner staying on the premises."
The Government changed fire safety law in October 2006 with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It placed the onus on businesses to ensure their properties complied with the most up-to-date fire safety regulations.
The assessment can be carried out either by the business using the guidelines or by hiring one of the many people working in fire safety consultancy. The fire service then carries out an audit of the businesses in its patch, usually by targeting the highest risk first – that being places where people spend the night.
One Westcountry B&B proprietor, who asked not to be named, said he feared the rules were already putting people out of business.
"If they continue to enforce the full rigours of the way they interpret the regulations, they will put hundreds of small bed and breakfasts and self catering establishments out of business.
"It's all down to interpretation. And what they are doing is interpreting those guidelines as law. The guidelines state clearly at the beginning 'these are not prescriptive – they are purely for guidance'."
He said the guidelines went too far, adding: "I have not found anyone injured through fire, let alone killed, certainly not in this area. So why are these rules being inflicted so sternly? Who benefits from this, apart from the bureaucrats and all the red tape? The only thing in my view made any safer are the jobs of these bureaucrats and the officialdom that administer this nonsense."
Another criticism of the regulations has been the inconsistent way in which they were publicised. In some cases proprietors found themselves baffled as they tried to find out information on the rules.
Toni Evans of the Hunter's Lodge in Dartmeet, said: "We received no official notification that we were required to make any changes. We had great difficulty finding out precisely what was required and in the end we discovered we could carry out our own risk assessment.
"Through this, we established that we needed to introduce only a few extra extinguishers and alarms. But some of the quotes we found were very expensive. And it was only after further research we realised that we could save money buying these things ourselves."
11 Comments
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by David Weston, Dorset
Thursday, October 16 2008, 11:19AM
“Thank you for an informative article: anyone interested in finding out more should go to www.firesafetysense.com, the campaign website. There is a 10 Downing Street Petition on the website, an online survey, case studies and much more information.”
by Charles Henry, Somerset
Thursday, October 09 2008, 11:09AM
“Millions of us have guests to stay in our homes, day in day out; year in year out Coln. . It's called 'living'. . A Hotel by it's very nature is likely to have 'employees'. . B and B's in general, with the owner in situe are likely to present no more of a risk than 'staying with friends'. . You might need a 'nannie', but the majority of us are 'grownups' ,and take our responsibilities seriously and we certainly do not.”
by Gaffer, Saltash
Wednesday, October 08 2008, 9:02AM
“How refreshing to read the comments from Colin.
Well done to all of those who have public safety and protection in mind. You get my support 100% and the full support of the civilised population of the country.”
by Colin, Cornwall
Tuesday, October 07 2008, 11:41AM
“As a small hotel owner in Cornwall that has conformed to the new Fire Reform Act I am glad that guest houses and B&Bs are now the targets. Some of these home run 'businesses' have probably never paid business rates, never paid tax on their earnings, never paid for trade rubbish collection etc but now winge and moan about having to put in place safety proceedures and equipment to PROTECT their guests. If and when they carry out their own risk assessment they will relise that their guests are more at risk staying with them because they will be in an unfamilair envoirment, they may have young children with them or they may be elderly and they will have put thier trust in the owners to provide a safe envoirment. I know that my guests are safer now BECAUSE of the fire reform act.”
by James, Cornwall
Monday, October 06 2008, 10:57PM
“I am appalled to see the content of the first two comments coming from a "fire safety adviser".
Fortunately for us, the government and its rule makers put the lives of people ahead of business.
We will always find that countries with a high regard for safety will never be short of customers at whatever the price. I had a holiday in Ireland earlier this year and toured the whole country. Every B&B was of the highest standard as per Irish Tourist Board guidelines. The proprieters were proud of these standards and provided an outstanding welcome together with top class service. Indeed some of the regulations complained about in the above report are a "must" in Ireland and I shall be returning there next year to be part of such a happy environment.
Well done to "Fire Safety Officer, Devon" for giving us a frank, detailed and unbiased comment on the situation.
The subject of fire safety is far too important to be left in the hands of anti EU and anti govt self styled exponents.”
by Charles Henry, Somerset
Monday, October 06 2008, 8:02PM
“It is never these 'Rule-Makers' or 'Rule-Enforcers' who have the expense of putting these 'safeguards' into practice. . When they have finished bankrupting all these B&Bs as they did all the Care Homes, they will all be tucked up snug in their nice warm beds, safe with their index-linked pensions; all paid for by the oppressed tax-payer. . It's exactly the same with Health and Safety. . A plague on all their houses. . Just living life will always have dangers. . This used to be a free country. . Roll on The Revolution!”
by James, Cornwall
Monday, October 06 2008, 7:38PM
“I am appalled to see that the first two comments come from a "fire safety adviser".
Fortunately for us, the government and its rule makers put the lives of people ahead of business.
We will always find that countries with a high regard for safety will never be short of customers at whatever the price.
Well done to "Fire Safety Officer, Devon" for giving us a frank, detailed and unbiased comment on the situation.
The subject of fire safety is far too important to be left in the hands of anti EU and anti govt self styled exponents.”
by Fire Safety Officer, Devon
Monday, October 06 2008, 6:00PM
“As a Fire Safety Officer I am suprised how easily the WMN has jumped on this story.
I agree that the government has done a poor job of advertising the fact that the law changed, but laws and regulations are changed all the time. for example, you may drive to work every day down the same road but one day you drive down and the speed limit has changed and you get snapped. Just because the Governmant did not write and tell you doesn't mean you can get away with it!
The law changed because government identified that places providing accomodation had been 'hiding' behind a piece of legislation over 30 years old and it was time to bring these places up to a standard of safety according to risk.
The fire safety order is similar to a piece of legislation brought into force to cover 'workplaces' over 10 years ago but this legislation was mainly put in place to cover the safety of employees.
The new legislation protects everyone.
You are righ in saying that the guidance documents are 'guides' but what you do not say is that there may be other ways to acheive the same level of safety providing it meets the requirement of the law.
Guides such as these have been produced by government for many year (for example the one produced for the building regulations) the difference is that I believe that these guides have been written for the 'ley person' to understand.
In my experience as a fire safety officer I also beleive that officers throughout Devon and Somerset apply the legilation in a fair and consistant manner and explain fully their reasons for asking premises to provide more protection (which is at a level appropriate to the premises).
It also humours me when people say ' no one has been killed or injured, certainly not in this area'. Does that not mean that the odds of someone being killed or injured are stacked against you?
What you have to remember is that members of the public are relying on hoteliers and Bed and breakfast owners to provide premises that will protect them and their families and give them the earliest warning of fire, directions and lighting to escape the premises (which they may not be familiar with in the middle of the night) and ensure all of this before the premises becomes fully involved in fire. Also 'having a careful owner' on the premises does not account for the careless guest.
We should be promoting the safety of our businesses in the south west not publishing front page headlines that could potentially put people off thinking of staying down here on holiday.”
by chris bonnick, swaffham norfolk
Monday, October 06 2008, 5:08PM
“being a fire safety adviser i am appalled at the governments beaurocratic handling of the fire reform act when they cant even run the country. the sooner we get rid of the e.u. & our own useless quangos & get back to common sense & logic the better for all of us.”
by chris bonnick, swaffham norfolk
Monday, October 06 2008, 4:58PM
“as a fire safety adviser i agreewith those comments made. the government are interfering yet again in peoples lives & dictating to us all with their beaurocrats, quangos & e.u. reforms which we should ignore & tell them to keep to the other side of the english channel.”