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What can the Council do?

Ashfield District Council's Building Control Section is responsible for dealing with all reported dangerous structures within the District.

We have a team of dedicated officers who provide a "round the clock" service, aiming to respond to all incidents within two hours.

Under Section 77 of the Building Act 1984, the Council have powers to require a building owner to undertake all necessary works to obviate any danger, this may involve partial or full demolition and restricting use where overloading of a structure is evident.

At times it may be necessary to undertake immediate action to remove a dangerous structure and Section 78 of the Act allows the Council to undertake all reasonable works to ensure the safety of the public.

In all cases, the Council are only expected to remove the danger and make the site "safe" and will therefore not get involved in the "making good" of the structure.

Where possible, Building Control will contact the owner(s) of a building or structure, in order to give them the opportunity to arrange for all necessary remedial works to be undertaken. However, if works are not carried out in what is considered a reasonable time scale, the Council will arrange for the works to be done.

If the Council do arrange for works to be carried out, all reasonable costs incurred in making a structure "safe" and the site "secure" will be re-charged to the owner(s) of the building/structure.

What is a dangerous structure?

It is very difficult to give a definitive answer; however here are examples of incidents that have been responded to by this Council:

• Accident involving a car that has crashed into a building, causing the building to become unstable.
• A house or commercial property fire where the building's structural members have been badly affected.
• Badly leaning chimney stack/pot.
• Broken glass in a window/door fronting onto a highway.
• Boundary walls (badly leaning or fractured) fronting onto the highway.

Obviously this list is not exhaustive; however it does give some indication on the types of incident Building Control responds to. If you have concerns about any structure or building in this District, please contact:

Building Control on 01623 457305 in business hours (9am - 5pm Monday to Thursday, 9am - 4:30pm Friday)
Emergency response line 01636 655224 out of hours.