{"id":520050,"date":"2025-05-08T12:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=520050"},"modified":"2025-05-09T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:10:40","slug":"retirement-village-blaze-court-case-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/legal\/retirement-village-blaze-court-case-collapses-08-05-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement village blaze court case collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A trial over alleged fire safety breaches by four firms \u2013 including a Morgan Sindall subsidiary \u2013 following a huge blaze at a retirement village has collapsed after less than two days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) said it was withdrawing its case, which was being heard at Chester Crown Court, as there was \u201cno realistic prospect of securing convictions\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial centred on a fire at Beechmere retirement village (pictured), in Crewe, which tore through the building in August 2019. The timber-framed complex, which housed around 150 residents, was destroyed in the blaze, but no lives were lost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CFRS had brought prosecutions under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 following what it called a \u201clong and complex investigation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, in a statement yesterday, Alex Waller, Cheshire\u2019s chief fire officer, said: \u201cFollowing extensive legal submissions heard over the first two days of the trial, unfortunately it became clear that there would be no realistic prospect of securing convictions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAfter carefully considering legal advice, regrettably we have taken the very difficult decision to withdraw our prosecution case against all four defendants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial had been expected to last up to 10 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The four companies on trial were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Avantage (Cheshire),\u00a0 a subsidiary of housing association Your Housing Group, which was contracted to procure the design, build and finance of Beechmere, and operate the village<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your Housing<\/span><b>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the housing association which employed staff at Beechmere and was the \u2018responsible person\u2019 for fire safety measures, as defined by Article 3(a) of the Fire Safety (Regulatory Reform) Order 2005<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Morgan Sindall Property Services<\/span><b>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the facilities-management subcontractor to Avantage, which had responsibility for responsive repairs and cyclical maintenance<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Total Fire Group (TFG), the fire safety consultancy that was contracted to carry out fire risk assessments at Beechmere in August 2017 and August 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The four companies, all of which pleaded not guilty, faced a total of 14 charges between them. They were<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/morgan-sindall-and-wsp-face-charges-over-burnt-retirement-village-06-07-2023\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">charged in 2023<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last October, six charges against roofing contractor MAC Roofing were dropped and two against engineering giant WSP UK were dropped in February this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the case against Morgan Sindall Property Services, the fire service had alleged the firm had failed \u201cto take measures to prevent the spread of fire in the premises\u201d and failed to review a 2009 fire risk assessment that identified defective doors to the smoke shaft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It also alleged that Morgan Sindall Property Services had failed to \u201cinform the roofing contractor of [the] timber-framed construction of premises\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Morgan Sindall Property Services spokesperson said: \u201cWe welcome the decision by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to withdraw the case against Morgan Sindall Property Services and all the remaining defendants.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;We have always maintained that we were not guilty of the charges brought against us, and that\u00a0we acted with responsibility and followed all the necessary preventative measures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The not guilty verdict delivered by the court validates this, however, we recognise the significant impact and stress that this incident has had on residents and family of those who resided at Beechmere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">TFG told <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Construction News<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: \u201cWe are delighted to announce that Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service have finally dropped the case against Total Fire Group Ltd and all the remaining defendants. The prosecution offered no evidence and not-guilty verdicts were returned by the court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe remain mindful of the impact that this fire had on the residents of Beechmere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cTFG has always maintained that it acted professionally and properly and always in compliance with the Fire Safety Order. By dropping the case, CFRS and the court have recognised this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your Housing Group said the safety of its residents was its &#8220;number one priority&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have always maintained that we were not guilty of the charges which were brought against us and welcome the decision by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to withdraw its prosecution of all charges against Your Housing Limited and Avantage, which led the court to record a not guilty verdict on all charges.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will continue with our plans to deliver great homes and services to the people living across our communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trial over alleged fire safety breaches by four firms \u2013 including a Morgan Sindall subsidiary \u2013 following a huge blaze at a retirement village has collapsed after less than two days. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) said it was withdrawing its case, which was being heard at Chester Crown Court, as there was &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29901,"featured_media":477418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[547,578],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A trial over alleged fire safety breaches by four firms \u2013 including a Morgan Sindall subsidiary \u2013 following a huge blaze at a retirement village has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/legal\/retirement-village-blaze-court-case-collapses-08-05-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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