Alan Dransfield's Blog

Dorset County Council

Dear Mr Mair

I note from your last letter to me that you also hold the
position Clerk for the Dorset Fire Authority,hence I wish to take up the
subject title with you as well as the current FOIA for the Coastal Path.

I am deeply concerned for the safety of the Pupils and Staff
of the Lychett Minster School in Dorset because it has not been provisioned
with any Lightning Risk Assessment despite a serious fire at the school which
burned down the Library and Theatre section of the school a couple of
years ago..

Dorset Fire Authority Fire Report confirmed the Root Cause
for the Fire was Lightning but no LRA was carried out on the New Rebuild.

I must therefore assume ALL Dorset Schools have not been
provisioned with LRA. Please confirm the LRA on Government Properties in
Dorset.

I am also deeply concerned that neither Dorset Fire
Authority or Dorset County Council appear to have learned any lessons from the
Lychett School Fire.

In fact, the Lychett Mister Fire report reads more like a
comedy of errors, which is akin to Carry on Firemen.

The Dorset Fire Authority report confirmed the fire was
caused by lightning but the Fire Authority failed to report the quality
of the Lightning Protection System at the time of the fire. It strikes me the
Dorset Fire Authority and the Dorset County Council are ignorant to Lightning Protection
Standards and requirements.

My personal assessment of the Lightning Protection System at
Lychett Minster Schools is the system was installed by cowboys.

Not for one moment am I being critical of the brave
Dorset firemen who attended the Lychett Minster school, but I am most critical of
the Dorset Fire Authority management and the Dorset County Council designers.

Dorset Fire Authority and Dorset Council did not learn
any lessons from the Lychett Minster School and I wish to take up this
issue with the Dorset Fire Authority via their clerk.

There is a similar situation here in Devon where 500 +
schools have not been provisioned with any Lightning Risk
Assessment,which ,quite frankly, beggars belief. Whether or not this anomaly is
isolated to Devon and Dorset, I know not but I would be grateful if you
would forward this letter to the National Fire Chief’s Association.

For your information action files.

With thanks

Yours sincerely

Alan M Dransfield.

Email sent – Wed 09/12/2015 04:10

Dear Mr Bradshaw

Please see the attached photograph of a fish ladder recently
built (3#) in Exeter near Trews Weir. Obviously, the designers of these ‘fish ladders’ have never seen salmon and trout jumping out of
the water to scale waterfalls.

Fish are prevented from jumping out of the water because the
Devon County Council and Environmental goons have fully enclosed the ‘fish ladders’ with grills.

I would envisage these fish ladders have cost in the region
of £300k. Money well spent?

In short, these fish ladders are boondoggles.

Please add this to my long list of complaints.

Yours etc

Dransfield

Email sent – Wed 09/12/2015 04:23

Dear Mr Bradshaw

Please see the photograph of the line of buoys recently
installed on the new flood prevention on the River Exe at Trews Weir, Exeter and
as you can see there was not a lot of thought put into the design of these
buoys.

I would question the need for such buoys because there
haven’t been any for the last 30 years. Plus the fact the Devon County Council Environment
Designers need retraining on the laws of gravity and water flow – see photo.

I would expect you can see this debacle and the fish ladders
from your kitchen window; hence this sort of BS is going on right under you
snout.

Not another Environmental Dept boondoggle??

The fish ladder can be seen on the bottom right of the photo.

Yours etc

Dransfield

Email sent – Wed 09/12/2015 05:35

Dear Mr Bradshaw

A wind turbine located on the A30 down near Redruth with a
total clearance between the Petrol Station of less than 100 mts.

I appreciate it is outside your remit, but even you can surely
see the possible catastrophecan’t you?.

Yours etc

Dransfield

Email sent – Wed 09/12/2015 06:04

Dear Mr Bradshaw

I am sure you will recognise this photograph, which is at
the Sandy Park Rugby Stadium, home to the Exeter Chiefs. This photo was taken
last year after the recent stadium improvements.

As you are well aware, I am on record claiming the Sandy Park
and the Pedestrian Bridge are lightning deathtraps and both are unsafe &
unfit for purpose.

This photograph proves without doubt the Sandy Park Stadium
is non compliant to BS/EN 62305 Lightning Protection System (LPS)
Requirements.

The pole which you can see is one of the 4 floodlight towers and is less than 500mm from the Main Stand has not been provisioned
with adequate LPS and in particular potential ground rise and overflash from the pole to stadium and vice versa.

It is also very clear from the photograph that theroof material is a PVC or plastic material to allow optimum
light. However, the stadium design required the roof to be of Metal/Aluminum – to
be used in lieu of Lightning Finals.

May I suggest you forward this photograph to a lightning consultant and ask for a second opinion please? In the event you have no access
to such expertise, I can recommend one of the World’s finest lightning protection consultants, i.e. Mr Ernest NR Duckworth who is based in the
USA and hence maintains independence.

For your information,action and files

With thanks.

Alan M Dransfield

Email sent – Wed 09/12/2015 07:07

Dear Mr Bradshaw

Earlier this year a subcontractor working for Balfour Beatty
died when he fell from the roof during his work on Sun 28th June 2015. The Health and Safety Executive declared this incident did not come under their remit because the Olympic
Stadium was not classed as a work site. The Principle Contractor is/was Balfour
Beatty and I am suspicious of any such matters on their sites.

Have the HSE gone mad and lost what little sanity they had?

Of course the Olympic Stadium IS/WAS a building site, hence,
the HSE held clear jurisdiction.

I appreciate this is outside your remit but I am unable to
contact the HSE owing to my lifetime email ban. Hence, I call upon my MP to
write to the relevant oversight authority and ask for an explanation why the
HSE appear to have been criminal negligent.

With thanks

Yours etc

Alan M Dransfield