Six companies, including Morgan Sindall, have been charged with breaching fire safety laws over their role in the construction of a retirement village which caught fire in August 2019.
The companies are being prosecuted by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service for breaching the Fire Safety (Regulatory Reform) Order 2005 in relation to work at the timber-framed Beechmere retirement village in Crewe.
Now Morgan Sindall, who served as a facilities management subcontractor at the building and had hired MAC Roofing and Contractors for roofing work, is facing nine charges.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service said its four-year investigation had been “a long and complex process due to the scale of the fire and the number of parties involved in the design, construction, maintenance and management of the “building”.
The fire service alleges Morgan Sindall “failed to take steps to prevent fire spreading to the premises” and failed to review a 2009 fire risk assessment which identified faulty doors in the flue. He also accused Morgan Sindall of “failing to inform the roofing contractor”. [the] construction of premises with wooden framework”.
The fire service has also accused the MAC of nine breaches of fire safety rules, among which the spread of fire must not be prevented, it has not carried out an adequate risk assessment, it has applied the principles of prevention of fires and has provided adequate means of fire warning.
Two charges are laid against engineering giant WSP, which was hired to draw up a detailed fire strategy for the building in 2007 and to draw up a fire safety operational manual and carry out a fire risk assessment Beechmere fire in 2008.
The first charge is for “failing to make an adequate and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons were exposed in order to identify general fire precautions”.
The second alleges that there has been a lack of “cooperation and coordination with [developer] Advantage of making an adequate and sufficient assessment of the risks to which the relevant persons were exposed in order to identify the necessary general fire precautions”.
Other companies facing charges are Avantage, housing association Your Housing and fire risk adviser Total Fire Group. The six companies are due to appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on August 8.
No residents were injured in the Beechmere retirement village fire, but more than 150 lost their homes and possessions. The fire was one of the largest ever attended by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, with 70 firefighters deployed at its height.
In a separate civil action, Cheshire East Borough Council, Your Housing and Advantage are seeking £40m in damages from contractors and consultants involved in building the retirement village, including WSP and a former defunct subsidiary of Gleeson.
