Issue details

To consider the tenders received and to award a contract for the replacement fire alarm system at Frosthole Close.

At Frosthole Close there is an existing fire alarm system which covers all of the 96 one and two bedroomed properties and associated communal staircases together with the communal building which houses a pre-school, communal lounge and laundry building. All properties are linked and therefore an alarm in one property will activate the alarms in all other buildings.

The existing system has been adapted over the years to deal with nuisance alarms resulting in smoke detectors within dwellings being replaced with heat detectors and has more recently suffered from faults from wiring which is buried in the ground between the blocks of dwellings.

A replacement fire alarm system has been specified based on advice received from the Council’s fire risk assessors which identified that the current system does not meet current requirements in terms of smoke detection within dwellings and that the detection coverage and alarm provided to the communal staircases blocks of dwellings is not required due to the nature of construction, internal arrangement of the blocks, low fire risk and defend-in place strategy for residents i.e. should a fire start and be detected in the communal staircases associated with the blocks of dwellings an alarm for evacuation could result in residents escaping in to the area of the fire or smoke filled staircases.

The replacement fire alarm system includes:

1.    The provision of a conventional fire alarm system to cover the community building including associated small power supplies.

2.    Provision of separate and independent domestic smoke and heat alarm systems to cover the dwellings including associated small power supplies and interfacing.

3.    Full removal of the existing fire alarm system from all dwellings, associated communal staircases and the community room.

The replacement fire alarm system offers a reduced level of provision in that the communal staircases will no longer be covered, as per the advice of the Council’s independent fire risk assessor which has also been supported by the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Head of Building Control.