Gansey Mill Supporting Information

Gansey Mill Document 04 Supporting Information

This change is part of a larger project involving roof works to the building. The housing, which is partly brick built, contains the lift mechanism for the building. The cladding is life expired and will need to be removed as part of the larger renovation work. There are serious health & safety concerns about the current design and permission is being sought to change it, in order to make access to the lift mechanism much safer. This access method cannot be reinstated post works due to its unsuitable nature. Currently access is via an in situ ladder on the outside of the building, off the fire escape, then via on an exposed flat portion of roof. Photos are supplied to show this (Gansey Mill Doc 05 - Current ladder access). As well as the obvious safety concerns, the door of the lift housing faces directly into the prevailing weather and has been a consistent failure in the water and weather-tight integrity of the building fabric. The position of the door also affects lift reliability.

Access to the lift mechanism is required at least twice a year by the maintenance contractors ‘Liftmann’. Attached is a supporting document from Ian Corlett, proprietor at ‘Liftmann’ (Gansey Mill Doc 06 - Maintenance Access).

The additional section of the housing will allow access to be achieved via a hatch in the hallway of the top, fourth floor flat (Flat 5) with appropriate internal ladders and floors added, making it both safer and drier. The current brick structure of the lift housing, including the access door, will remain.

The new whole (the addition and the current housing) will be clad in anthracite/grey coloured PVC and roofed in fibreglass, in an effort to make it less prominent than the current white. The intention is that, despite the small increase in size, it will be less conspicuous (Ganey Mill Doc 07 - Visual impact).