Brewery pays out nearly £30,000 for fire safety breaches 10 January 2011 Old News but pertinent to the Licensed Trade postings this week.

A brewery has been ordered to pay £27,481 in fines and costs following a number of fire safety breaches at one of its pubs in London.Punch Taverns Plc pleaded guilty to seven contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Thames Magistrates Court on 6 January.

Fire safety officers who first investigated the Milestone pub on Mile End Road in July 2008 found that there was inadequate maintenance of the fire alarms and poor emergency lighting. In some cases, emergency lighting was non-existent.The London Fire Brigade also found that the building, which is a House of Multiple Occupation, had not been installed with self closers on a kitchen door and one of its bedroom doors.

Punch Taverns was issued with an enforcement notice and time to comply following the first visit, however a second investigation in November 2008 revealed a number of faults still to be addressed.

Assistant commissioner for fire safety regulation, Steve Turek, said: “London Fire Brigade will continue to take action when businesses, large or small, do not take their fire safety responsibilities seriously. Failure to comply with the law can, as this case has shown, result in a prosecution.”