We took a call today from a school where we installed a small fire detection and alarm system just two years ago. Claire from our office took the call and passed me the message; they were going to be demolishing the new multisports building, and could we come to site to de-commission the existing fire alarm?

I thought that she had taken the message incorrectly and called the customer to establish what they really wanted.

I was quite shocked when I realised that they really were demolishing the new building, ( I had to apologise to Claire for not believing her).

I had attended site myself to advise one of our less experienced engineers how to commission this specific system. I had no idea at the time that I would hear, what seemed like only months later, that it was going to be demolished!

Apparently the building has to go because the whole school is being replaced. I then asked how this new school was to be funded and was told by a PFI (private finance initiative). This news did not fill me with joy.

PFI Projects!
We have had a few experiences with PFI projects and can only say that judging from the amount of people usually involved, I would be very surprised if it transpired to be value for money. What is the basis for this? Let me give you an example:

Consider a small church in a local garrison, where we supplied and commissioned a fire system. In the normal course of events we would commission this, issue a certificate to the relevant standard, and then return to do some basic user training. But this was not just a normal project, this was a PFI project. There are so many interested parties and each faction needs to be assured that everything is satisfactory. So we had to go back

again

to recommission the system for both the builder and main contractor.
We then had to attend site

again

for a hand over of the fire alarm system, where more than 10 people attended, representing the other cogs in the wheels of PFIs to witness that the system did acutally work. And all this for a system with a small control panel and less than twenty detectors!

The list of interested parties seems endless, such as: the client, the client’s representative(s), the QS (Quantity Surveyor), the consultant, the architect, the main contractor, and builder and electrical contractor! All to witness that the fire alarm works! This could appear, on the face of it, to be quite amusing, but imagine this for each discipline within a building and you will soon see how these unnecessary costs begin to stack up. Someone has to pay for all of this and, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the tax payer!

I am not even sure whether the people who are going to actually use the building have any involvement at any stage prior to occupation, and they end up with systems that they do not need or want, or could possibly find difficult to use. I know that this is a generalisation and a bit alarmist, but in my view it’s vital that the people who operate these buildings be considered at planning stage. If PFIs did this as standard, then I think that everyone would benefit, resulting in more value for the money than could ever be the case if this practice continues in this way.

Tags: New Building demolished