Fire Safety

A restaurant operator housed his staff in a flat with no proper fire escape and no separate kitchen.

The discovery was made by council officers who visited the flat over the restaurant in Cambridge with the fire service in January last year and found that several staff members were living there.

They served an order prohibiting restaurant staff from living in the flat until it was made safe. But visits in June and July found staff still living in the flat and no improvement work done.

The owner pleaded guilty at Cambridge magistrates court last month to failing to make improvements to the first floor flat to make it safe for his restaurant staff. He was fined £12,500 with £2,500 costs.

Speaking after the hearing, a Cambridge councillor responsible for housing said: ‘People who cut corners and put others at risk must be held to account and it is obvious from the size of the fine that the magistrates fully agreed that the situation was intolerable.’