Draft guidance for designing Gypsy and Traveller sites - Chapter 5: site safety

This Chapter outlines the responsibilities of the local authorities to ensure their sites are fit for purpose and conform to health and safety standards. It also deals with protecting residents from crime and ensuring fire safety on sites.

It is the responsibility of the local authority and site manager to ensure a risk assessment of the site is regularly undertaken, including a specific fire risk assessment. All equipment provided by the local authority must conform to relevant standards and be regularly inspected by a competent person. Site managers must keep records of all testing undertaken and inspections should be completed yearly. Site managers must ensure that every care is taken to protect equipment from the elements if stored outside, for example via suitable casing.

Tall buildings provided on the site by the local authority must comply with relevant mobility standards and where applicable also with the requirements of Part M (Access to and Use of Buildings) of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010 and associated relevant legislation.

It is important that residents feel safe and secure on site without feeling isolated or imprisoned. Any new site design should aim to safeguard residents are much as practicable. Local authorities may also find it helpful to discuss their plans with the local police force to ensure they conform to Secured by Design principles and to ensure security and crime issues are understood and addressed from the outset.

When designing local authority sites, local authorities are required to consult the local fire and rescue authority under section 56 of the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013.

Mobile homes must be situated in a way which will reduce the risk of fire spreading between buildings and structures on the pitch. The minimum distance between caravans should be 6 metres. Pitches should be no more than 30 metres from a fire point. Fire points must be housed in a weatherproof structure, easily accessible and clearly marked ‘Fire Point’.

Standpipes or hydrants must be provided on each site as determined by the risk assessment and in consultation with the relevant fire and rescue authority. All equipment must conform to relevant British/European standards.

Each fire point must have a method of raising the alarm in the event of a fire. This must be appropriate to the size and layout of the site and informed by consultation with the relevant fire and rescue authority.

Hydrants must conform to British Standard 750 and must be positioned so no caravan is more than 100m from a hydrant. It is important to ensure hydrants and other water supplies are easily accessible and are not obstructed or obscured. Hose reels could be considered; however, residents must be made aware they should not delay contacting the fire service by trying to put the fire out themselves. Any hoses provided must be protected from the elements and care taken to prevent them from being misused.

Notices outlining what action must be taken in the event of a fire or other emergency should be placed in prominent locations throughout the site. Where possible pictograms should be used to explain what must be done and what arrangements are in place in the event of a fire, including details of the assembly point.

Each local authority site must have protocols in place which are clearly laid out in a site management plan. Residents need to be made aware they have a responsibility to prevent fires occurring and it is their responsibility to maintain fire extinguishers owned by them. All alarm and firefighting equipment provided by the local authority must be installed, tested and maintained in working order by a competent person. All equipment susceptible to frost must be suitably protected.

Maintenance and Testing of site fire alarms and fire fighting equipment must be installed, tested and maintained in working order by qualified persons, not residents and be available for inspection by, or on behalf of, the licensing authority or the Fire and Rescue Authority. A record must be kept of all testing and remedial action taken.

The requirements of the relevant fire and rescue authority should be taken into account when storing Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and other flammable materials on the site. The storage of these materials should meet statutory requirements and measures should be put in place to prevent misuse.

Access to and around the site must allow easy access for Fire and Rescue services and ambulances.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring they comply with the fire safety legislation in force at any given time. The Fire safety standards which apply in Wales are contained in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Relevant provisions of the Order apply to amenity blocks and communal areas of local authority sites. However, this does not include the mobile homes themselves, as these are domestic premises.

If the local authority wishes to put alternative fire prevention, detection and fighting measures in place they must consult the relevant fire and rescue authority before doing so.