Fire service access and hardstanding in a site layout

Fire appliance access is settled by the planning layout, not by building control. The dimensions come from Approved Document B, but the ground they need is allocated when the site plan is drawn, and once a permission fixes the position of the parking bays, the tree pits and the bin presentation point, there is often nowhere left for a 12.5 tonne appliance to stand.

So the evidence belongs in the planning submission: an access route, a hardstanding, a tracking drawing and a note on how the route stays available. Four drawings and a paragraph.

Why access is a planning rather than a building matter

Approved Document B sets out the performance requirement and the dimensions. For a pump appliance the figures routinely used are a minimum road width between kerbs of 3.7 metres, a minimum gateway width of 3.1 metres, turning circles of 16.8 metres between kerbs and 19.2 metres between walls, a minimum clearance height of 3.7 metres and a carrying capacity of 12.5 tonnes. A high reach appliance needs larger turning circles, 26.0 metres between kerbs and 29.0 metres between walls, a 4.0 metre clearance height and a 17 tonne capacity.

Those are building regulation figures. What makes them a planning matter is that every one of them consumes land. Carriageway width, turning head geometry, clearance under a soffit or an archway and a surface designed for 12.5 tonnes all have to be reconciled with the landscape proposals, the parking layout and the drainage strategy at the same time, and the planning permission is what fixes them.

The distance requirements matter just as much. For blocks of flats the convention is access for a pump appliance to within 45 metres of all points within each dwelling. Where a building has a dry or wet fire main, the appliance has to be able to park within 18 metres of the inlet and within sight of it. That last requirement is the one that is most often designed out by a hedge.

Appliance route and hardstanding provision

Set out the route as a continuous, dimensioned corridor from the public highway to each hardstanding position.

What the drawing needs to show:

• the carriageway width along the whole route, with the narrowest point dimensioned
• any gateway, archway or undercroft, with both width and clear height dimensioned
• the hardstanding, dimensioned, with the distance to the relevant entrance and to the riser inlet annotated
• the construction specification for the route and the hardstanding, with the design load stated
• the position of hydrants, existing and proposed
• any gradient steeper than a stated figure, since appliances have practical gradient limits

Where the route crosses a basement slab, a podium, a culvert or a service trench, say what the structural capacity is. A route that looks fine in plan and sits over a 5 kilonewton per square metre podium deck is not a route.

Hardstanding is the element most often omitted. It is not the same as a parking bay and it is not the same as the carriageway. It is a defined area, built to carry the appliance, positioned so the crew can work, and kept clear.

Tracking drawings and turning areas

Swept path analysis is the proof. Run it with an appliance template rather than a refuse vehicle, because the two are not interchangeable, and ask the local fire and rescue service which appliance type is relevant to the site.

Test the manoeuvres that actually happen:

1. Entry from the public highway in both directions of approach.
2. Travel along the route to each hardstanding, with any pinch point shown.
3. Arrival at the hardstanding in the orientation the crew needs.
4. Turning or reversing to leave, with the reversing distance stated.
5. The same manoeuvres with parked vehicles in the marked bays, since an empty site plan proves nothing.
6. Conflict cases: appliance and refuse vehicle, appliance and a car leaving a bay.

Show overrun areas honestly. Where the swept path crosses a verge or a footway, either design it as a trafficable surface with a flush kerb and a suitable construction, or move the kerb line. A tracking drawing with wheel paths crossing a planted bed is an argument, not evidence.

Gradient and crossfall deserve a mention because they are usually ignored. A steep ramp into a courtyard, or a cross fall designed for drainage, both affect whether an appliance can stand and operate. Where the layout depends on a ramp, give the gradient.

Gates, bollards and controlled access

Secure sites and appliance access pull in opposite directions, and the resolution has to be stated rather than assumed.

The workable arrangements are a gate or barrier with an override accepted by the fire and rescue service, drop or removable bollards with the same, or an access route outside the secure line altogether. The arrangement has to be described in the Fire Statement where one is required, and on smaller schemes in the covering statement, with a note on who holds the means of opening and how that is maintained over time.

Three failure modes recur. A gate installed later by a management company, with no override, because the planning drawings showed an open entrance. A bollard arrangement that requires a key held in an office that is closed at night. And a vehicle parked across a drop bollard, which is a management problem rather than a design one but is solved by design: keep the hardstanding and its approach out of the places people park.

Conflicts with landscape and parking

This is where the real work is, and it is done by overlaying drawings rather than by writing text.

Overlay the fire access drawing, the landscape drawing, the parking layout and the drainage layout before submission. Every conflict found at that stage costs an afternoon. Every conflict found at discharge of conditions costs a redesign, and on a tight site the temporary works and tree protection questions come with it, as temporary works and tree protection on tight sites sets out.

Securing the arrangement by condition

Draft the conditions you want rather than accepting a standard set.

Three conditions do the job. The first requires the access route and hardstanding to be constructed in accordance with the approved drawing and to the stated load capacity before first occupation. The second requires the route and hardstanding to be kept available and free from obstruction thereafter, which gives the authority something to enforce against when a management company installs planters. The third requires details of any gate, barrier or bollard, including the means of emergency access, to be approved before installation.

Add a management plan where the site is gated or has shared parking. The plan should name who is responsible for keeping the route clear, how residents are informed, and what happens when a vehicle obstructs the hardstanding. It is a modest document and it is the one thing that keeps the arrangement working in year five.

One honest uncertainty: fire and rescue services differ in what they ask for and how early they engage, and they are consultees on building regulations rather than statutory consultees on most planning applications. So their comments may arrive after permission. Asking for informal comment at pre-application stage is the only reliable way to avoid a surprise, and it is usually freely given.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a scheme with constrained fire appliance access is likely to need.

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