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To look for a specific item then please use the search facility by clicking here
The Building Regulations 2000 in England and Wales are used for specific purposes - health and safety, energy conservation and the welfare and convenience of disabled people. The Building Regulations are supported by a series of Approved Documents that indicate how the Building Regulations can be achieved.
Detailed diagrams within the Approved Documents are provided for some of the
more common building situations. But there is no obligation to adopt any particular
solution within the documents. However, if a contravention is alleged, then
if the guidance has been followed, that will usually be sufficient to show that
the regulations have been complied with.
The access to and egress from buildings for disabled people is to be found
in several documents, but the main specific Approved Document is Part M (Building
Regulations 2000) Access to and use of buildings 2004 Edition.
Both the requirements of Part M and the text of the Approved Document now reflect
to a much greater extent the notion that people's abilities are multidimensional
and change over time and with family and personal circumstances. They clearly
signal a move away from the narrow aim of making buildings accessible to, and
usable by, disabled people towards an aim to make buildings accessible to, and
usable by, everyone - including disabled people. This gives a much closer dovetailing
with the aims of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and BS8300:2001 Design
of Building and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people: Code
of Practice rather than the outdated minimum standards in old Part M.
The requirements are:
Access and Use
M1. Reasonable provision shall be made for people to-
(a) gain access to;
and
(b) use the building and its facilities.
The requirements of this Part do not apply to -
(a) an extension of or material alteration of a dwelling;
or
(b) any part of a building which is used solely to enable the building or any
service or fitting in the building to be inspected, repaired or maintained.
Access to Extensions to Buildings other than Dwellings
M2. Suitable independent access shall be provided to the extension here reasonably
practicable.
Requirement M2 does not apply where suitable access to the extension is provided through the building that is extended.
Sanitary Conveniences in Extensions to Buildings other than Dwellings
M3. If sanitary conveniences are provided in any building that is to be extended,
reasonable provision shall be made within the extension for sanitary conveniences.
Requirement M3 does not apply where there is reasonable provision for sanitary conveniences elsewhere in the building, such that people occupied in, or otherwise having occasion to enter the extension, can gain access to and use those sanitary conveniences.
Sanitary Conveniences in Dwellings
M4. (1) Reasonable provision shall be made in the entrance storey for sanitary
conveniences, or where the entrance storey contains no habitable rooms, reasonable
provision for sanitary conveniences shall be made in either the entrance storey
or principal storey.
(2) In this paragraph "entrance storey" means the storey which contains
the principal entrance and "principal storey" means the storey nearest
to the entrance storey which contains a habitable room, or if there are two
such storeys equally near, either such storey.
The new requirements apply to:
A further significant change in the new edition is that the application of
Part M has been widened to include existing non-domestic buildings undergoing
extension, a material alteration or a material change of use, when the work
being undertaken will have to make reasonable provision for access in compliance
with Part M. In addition, in the case of extensions and changes of use of part
of a building, there must either by suitable independent access to that part
of the building or suitable access through the building.
Part M applies to those external features which are needed to provide access
to the building from the edge of the site and from car parking within the site.
The approved document raises the use of access statements. These are of particular
relevance for existing non-domestic buildings undergoing a change of use or
extension, for new buildings where there has been a departure from the guidance
in approved document M, and to balance the sometimes competing priorities of
access and conservation.
An Access Statement should be provided at the start of, and during, the building
control process, and should accompany deposited plans. This should help building
control bodies to make judgment on whether building development proposals make
'reasonable provision' for access. It can be used to allow the applicant to
identify the constraints imposed by the existing buildings, and should record
where the applicant wishes to depart from the guidance in Approved Document
M in order to provide a better solution to meeting the requirements of Part
M. "Reasonableness" is a new aspect of Building Regulations, that
runs parallel with similar consideration in the Code of Practice with the Disability
Discrimination Act.
In relation to new dwellings, the aims of Part M are to enable disabled people
to visit and use the principal storey and to help occupants cope with limited
mobility but not to the extent of requiring the construction of "lifetime"
homes, which addresses the needs of individual residents.
In schools or other educational establishments, the requirements of Part M
will apply subject to overriding variations concerning escape routes, ramps
and sanitary fittings, set out in the DfEE Constructional Standards. The Building
Bulletin 91, Access for disabled people to school buildings, published by DfEE
gives supplementary non-statutory guidance on accessibility.
The scope of Part M is limited to matters of access to, into, and use of a
building. It does not extend to means of escape for disabled people in the event
of fire, for which Part B Fire Safety and BS 5588 (1998) Part 8 'Code of Practice
for means of escape for disabled people' applies.
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