Building Control New

 

As from I January 2005 electrical work carried out in 'Dwellings' must be notified to your local Building Control office before commencing such works.

As an alternative you can engage a 'Competent Person', who is on an Approved Register and is capable of 'self-certifying' their own work. Such persons are required within 30 days of completion applicable electrical works will have to submit to their local Building Control office a 'declaration' that the installation complies with the Building Regulations.

 

The new requirements are contained in Approved Document P (Electrical Safety) and state:

 

P1 "reasonable provision shall be made in the design, installation, inspection and testing of electrical installations in order to protect persons from fire and injury"

Part P applies to electrical installations in buildings or parts of buildings comprising:

 

Part P applies also to parts of the above electrical installations:

 

 

Electrical work covered by Part P will include,

Alterations

Additions

All electrical work in Kitchens (except accessory changes)

All electrical work in Bathrooms (except accessory changes)

Excluded are 'Minor Works', which comprise of an addition to an electrical installation, but which does not involve a new circuit i.e. changing to a different design of light fitting or adding an extra light fitting or an extra socket into an existing circuit.

 

Should you require any further information on this matter please contact these offices.

 

A copy of the Approved Document can be found on the Communities and Local Government website or alternatively ordered from The Stationary Office (TSO) by telephoning 0870 600 5522 and by quoting ISBN 0 11-753917 1. 

 

From the first of April 2002, all replacement windows have been brought within the control of the Building Regulations. This means that if you take out an existing window in your property and replace it with a new one you must either:

 

  

Our application forms are now available for download directly from this site. National building regulation Full Plans, Building Notice and Regularisation forms can be obtained from LABC Services website at

 

 

The Building Research establishment have recently published a new document on Radon, a gas which is odourless, colourless and unfortunately - radioactive. This gas occurs naturally in the ground and only poses a risk to health where it is present in high concentrations. Normally the gas simply dissipates into the atmosphere once it reaches the ground surface, and this means that levels outside buildings are generally very low. Where the gas reaches the surface underneath a building however, it can become trapped inside, and concentrations can rise to the point where they could become hazardous. This only occurs however in areas where the geological make up of the ground is of a type that leads to Radon production, and this is where the new document comes in. BR 211 - Radon: guidance on protective measures for new dwellings, gives new details of those areas of the country where the ground conditions make radon precautions necessary, and goes on to give examples of how protection can be provided if needed.

 

The good news is that only a small area, to the west of Peterborough, has been identified as automatically needing protection, but significant areas within the City Council boundaries are shown as requiring a geological assessment. What this means is that in the vast majority of cases there will be no need to provide radon protection measures within the City Council area. To comply with the requirements of both the Building Regulations and the BRE document however, a majority of applications for new dwellings must be accompanied by a geological assessment of the site to ensure that there are no local conditions which make protection necessary. The only source of such information of which we aware at the moment is the British Geological Survey at Keyworth, and when we spoke to them it appears they can supply the required radon assessment within 3 working days, at a cost of £30.00 plus VAT.

 

BR 211 - Radon: guidance on protective measures for new dwellings (1999 edition, ISBN No 1 86081 3283) is available from CRC Ltd,151 Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4GB price £26.

 

Advice on obtaining a geological assessment for your site can be obtained from The Central Enquiry Service, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Notts, NG12 5GG. Telephone 0115 936 3143; fax 0115 936 3276.

 

Email enquiry@bgs.ac.uk or look at their web site at www.bgs.ac.uk

 

If you routinely submit applications all over the country you may be frustrated by the need to deal with each Local Authority separately - and be faced with the inevitable differing interpretations etc that this involves. If you are in this position then you may be interested to know about the partner authority scheme which is now available.

The basic idea here is that virtually all Local Authorities in the Country have decided to co-operate, so that a single Authority can form a partnership arrangement with a client, and then check all the plans for that client irrespective of where they will actually be built. The Authority in whose area the building takes place will still do the inspections on-site.

 

If you are interested in finding out more about the scheme, then we will be happy to send you more details - please contact us.

 

Around 4 times a year the Peterborough Building Control Service issues a newsletter which informs customers on such matters as, future changes to legislation and technical guidance, future seminars, the latest initiatives from LABC Services together with staff news. In addition our levels of performance against set targets are reported on.  

 

The documents below appear in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view them you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible.)  

 

Alternatively, should you wish to be added to our mailing list to receive the latest edition of the newsletter (free of charge) please email buildingcontrol@peterborough.gov.uk.