Published: November 7, 2008
Half of Burnham-On-Sea's guest houses 'threatened by fire safety rules'

Over half of Burnham-On-Sea's guest houses are under threat because new fire safety regulations require them to spend up to £10,000 on upgrading their premises.

That's the opinion of a new local campaign group that was launched on Thursday evening (November 6th) by Sedgemoor Tourism Association and Burnham's Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Tessa Munt to raise awareness of the problem and put pressure on the government to relax the regulations.

Phil and Mandy Smith from Burnham's Sherwood Guest House are among the local businesses affected by the changes.

Mandy explained to Burnham-On-Sea.com: "It's going to cost us around £5,000 to have a new mandatory electronic fire system, fire doors, lighting and new extinguishers fitted."

"For small businesses, this is a huge amount to fork out and in the current financial climate it could well close us down. There's been no warning that this legislation was coming and would be enforced so quickly."

They and several other guest houses in Burnham have welcomed this week's launch of the campaign, which is being run by Sedgemoor Tourism Association's Tom Ashton and Bob Nicholson, with the support of Tessa Munt and Cllr Joe Leach.

"We aim to provide struggling accommodation providers with a voice on a very serious issue," said Mr Ashton. "No-one wants to compromise fire safety in guest houses or hotels, but we want them to be able to be financially viable. Forcing small guest houses with a handful of rooms to introduce the the same expensive fire safety equipment as large hotels is ridiculous."

He added that the new regulations came into operation earlier this year and that inspections have only recently started. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order replaces many old fire safety laws, including the Fire Precautions Act.

Tessa Munt added: "Around half of the accommodation providers in Burnham-On-Sea are going to be put under serious financial pressure because of this, so action is needed very urgently to help them."

Pictured above at Thursday night's launch are Phil and Mandy Smith from Sherwood Guest House, Bob Nicholson and Tom Ashton of Sedgemoor Tourism Association, plus Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Tessa Munt and Cllr Joe Leach