David Starr, Principal Building Control Officer at Horsham District Council, speaks to Vanessa Good, Business Development and Marketing Officer at Horsham District Council, about how Sussex Building Control can help local businesses.
Sussex Building Control is the local authority building control service for Horsham District Council and Crawley Borough Council.
Video produced by Horsham District Council. August 2012.
Transcript:
Hi, I'm Vanessa Good, Business Development Officer at Sussex Building Control. I'm on site today in Horsham, West Sussex, with David Starr, Principal Building Control Surveyor, to find out how local authority building control help architects and builders create safe and sustainable buildings.
Hello there, as Vanessa says, I'm David Starr, Principal Building Control Officer, team leader with Horsham District Council. I've been working for them and doing local authority building control for about 25 years now. In that time, I've worked with local architects, builders, homeowners to help produce sustainable, healthy, safe buildings that meet the building regulations.
We're here today to look at a new building, which is being built in Horsham. It's a new home. David, can you tell me what are the key things that you look at from a Building Control point of view?
The Building Control process involves plans being submitted to us, we check those when they come into the office and we look to see if it complies with the regulations. Where there are issues or where there is advice needed we talk with the builder (and) the architect when they are preparing the submission and also during the process of checking it to come to a design that hopefully meets the needs of the client and also, fully, the requirements of the building regulations. Once that's been done we will issue an approval notice and when the work starts on site we will carry out inspections at key stages as the work goes along, discussing with the builder and again with the architect or designer to make sure the key elements of the build meet those requirements and provide a healthy and safe building.
Thank you. Sussex Building Control has a number of well established relationships with local architects and builders. Does it make it easier to manage their projects if you have these relationships?
Certainly, that's been one of the things that over the 25 years that I've been working here, I've enjoyed the ability to be able to work closely with local people who are aiming to provide good designs, do good building work and produce a good outcome for their customers.
The fact that we can build up a relationship with them, talk to them, have some interaction and come to a conclusion that meets the regulations and the needs of the clients has been a good thing over the years.
And thinking about all the schemes that you work on, what are the most successful projects and why?
Well certainly, we deal with a wide range of projects from small domestic extensions, alterations, loft conversions to new houses, commercial buildings even. It is the process of working together that makes a successful project. Using good local people, who are producing good products and having that interaction, is certainly something that leads to a good project and good outcome at the end of the day.
Thank you.
