Although there has been no official confirmation from Tenbury Town Council, it appears that following a snap inspection by Health & Safety Inspectors, the Heating system in the Regal Theatre has been condemned as unsafe.
This is a rather unexpected decision as the heating system and oil storage tanks were completely reinstalled after the flood and have passed both Fire Brigade and Insurance inspections.
Emergency meetings have been taking place as the cost of replacing the system again, would run into tens of thousands of pounds. If no resolution can be found, the theatre will be unusable for six months of the year, and is likely to suffer further structural damage if left unheated all winter.
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If the heating system was replaced after the floods it must have been fitted by an approved installer and must have met the rules at that time. You wouldn't put a heating system into a public building without doing it properly.
Will the installer have to come back and fix the problems?
Or have the rules changed since it was put in?
What work is needed?
The Regal is damp at the best of times. With no heating and no use (as will happen in October if this isn't fixed by then) the building - which is already poorly - will decay quite quickly and the Town Council will lose a lot of income.
I quite agree. So far the only official comment from the Mayor is that it is "complicated". Hopefully more information will be made public at Monday's Town Council meeting. The "local" contractor who installed the heating is rumoured to say that the only problem is with the fire door, which isn't up to standard and has a vent cut in it to allow the air in for the burners to fire. Other rumours are that the Council have instructed Henry Edwards to drain the storage tank of oil. Time will tell.
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It sounds strange enough to have a boiler and a lot of heating oil under the floor. No fire door sounds even more strange. And drawing the air from indoors? Time for a proper outdoor air supply!
The position doesn't sound very complicated. It sounds more like:
1) Flooded
2) Replaced
3) Condemned
The Regal will close if this isn't fixed soon. The people who show films have to book them in advance and with no heating they can't book October's films.
At tonight Town Council Meeting, much reference was made to previous meetings, but I think the problem is to do with venting and fire doors. The Mayor said that he felt they were nearing a resolution on this matter. (Who was to blame for them getting into this mess was to be discussed in Private Session)
Leaking tank?
No one has mentioned a leaking tank. The tanks are only two years old so shouldn't be a problem. I think even the bunding regulations were in by then. There was a "fight" between the contractor and the insurance company as they wanted the tanks replaced like for like (ie steel) and the contractor said (rightly) that they needed to be replaced with modern (I guess bunded) tanks.
It seems that the main problem is that the heating oil must now be stored outside, but no suitable storage facility is available. Although the rules on the storage of the oil changed some years ago, the system at the Regal was reinstalled after the flood. At last some Councillors are asking, who had the duty of care, and how did this get missed. The Council is now likely to face a £16K+ bill to provide a temporary solution to get heat back into the Regal and hope that a more permanent solution can be found when (if) the Regal is redeveloped.
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