I was in a city centre chain store today and saw a display stand part way up a staircase (at a turn). It looked wrong and I rather forcefully told a member of staff that it was wrong and should be moved immediately! (pompous git)
Was I right?
Yep, stairs shouldn't be obstructed. Particularly bad if the stand was flammable at all as the stairway acts as a chimney.
Yep, stairs shouldn't be obstructed. Particularly bad if the stand was flammable at all as the stairway acts as a chimney.
Dunno. But I feel much the same almost every time I go shopping.
Most especially at Christmas when supermarkets plonk pallets full of things blocking aisles. Evacuation in case of fire, for example, would be pandemonium.
Must be a member of the PGA. (Pompous Gits Association)
No. The correct procedure in such cases is to remove the products at the bottom of the display causing the whole lot avalanche down the stairs.
Right to tell a member of staff? Yes.
Right about it being a saftey issue? Can't tell without seeing it.
I can only think of one absolute in the guidelines to the Regulations made under the H&SW Act - the minimum height for a guard rail. Everything else is couched in terms like sufficient or reasonable, so there it would be impossible to say whether it was a hazard under the Act without seeing it. However, it might well be hazard under fire safety regulations if the staircase was an escape route - which it probably was. Drawing a potential hazard to the attention of a member of staff is quite correct. Telling one about it forcefully is, however, likely to be counter-productive.
Colin Bignell
I was in W H Smith last week & saw a display of Feng Shui books. I complained that they were in the wrong place & facing the wrong way.
Pearls before swine...............
A couple of weeks ago I saw something similar and even thought about posting a question on uk.diy but I didn't bother. It was a demonstrator working near the foot of an escalator at Debenhams Dept Store in Manchester.
It occurred to me that encouraging a crowd of people in
this area could be disastrous for people alighting the escalator
Is there a minimum safe distance for obstructions?
Owain
Did they have them in with the other cookery books?
It is not possible to be certain of either of those without seeing the situation. A small display in the outer corner of a large rectangular landing, secured against toppling, would almost certainly pass a risk assessment under either set of regulations.
The Act only requires retailers to make reasonable provision for the disabled, not avoid any possible obstruction to them. If, for example, there is a lift as an alternative to the stairs, that would be a reasonable provision. As the usual provision for the disabled on a floor served by a lift is a fire protected safe area, the DDR would not even apply in the case of a fire.
Colin Bignell
On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:27:04 GMT, a particular chimpanzee, "John" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
If the stair was a 'protected stair' i.e., approached through fire doors at each landing (whether held open by détents or not), leading ultimately to a final exit, then there should be no combustible materials nor anything which reduces the clear width of the stair and landing within that enclosure. If the stair is in an opening between floors in the middle of the shop, it's just an accommodation stair and isn't essential to the means of escape (unless the shop is a small shop over two storeys of less than 280m^2/floor, the stair discharges to within 3m of the final exit from the shop and it's the only stair in the building).
Next time, you could speak to the manager and suggest that they check the position of the display against their Fire Safety Risk Assessment.
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