SOUTH YORKSHIRE POLICE AUTHORITY

COMMUNITY AFFAIRS & STANDARDS COMMITTEE

14 March 2003

REPORT OF THE CHIEF CONSTABLE

VENTILATION & HEATING AT CUSTODY SUITES

1. Purpose of the Report

1.1 This report responds to a request at the last Community Affairs & Standards
Committee meeting held on 17 January 2003, to report on the condition of the
ventilation and heating systems in the 7 custody units in South Yorkshire.

2. Recommendation

2.1 That members note the content of the report.

3.1 Background Overview of Custody Suites

3.1 The Custody units vary in age from 2-30 years old. The systems of heating
and ventilation within the suites also vary in design and condition.

3.2 The basic design philosophy is to provide heating and ventilation to the cells,
common circulation and charge office areas. Heating can take the form of
either heated forced air delivery via ductwork or a low-pressure water heating
system via concealed iron pipe work. Whichever is used, there will also be an
air extraction system, which is primarily designed to reduce the concentration
of foul air and odours.

4. The Home Office Specification

4.1 The Home Office Police buildings design guide section E states the following
as the minimum performance criteria:

• Maintain a minimum of 18°C throughout the custody area when the

external temperature is –1°C.

• Deliver supply air into the corridors and communal areas, particular care
should be taken to ensure even distribution throughout.

• Extract air from cells, detention rooms, interview rooms, and all other
enclosed rooms in the custody area (including store rooms).
 • Maintain positive air pressure in corridors and circulation routes.

• Maintain sufficient air supply into corridors to achieve 6 air changes per
hour in all cells, detention room, holding rooms and all other enclosed
rooms throughout the custody suite

• Extract 100% of the air throughout the custody area to atmosphere at all
times.

The above is a direct extract from the Police Building Design Guide 1994
published by the Home Office

4.2 How the Specification has been interpreted

4.2.1 The minimum temperature stated can only be said to be adequate, as due to
modern day heating systems most people will probably only accept 21°C.

4.2.2 Based on the minimum temperature stated, we should work on a 19°C inside
to outside temperature differential.

4.2.3 The guide does not give an upper limit so we could use the 19°C max allowed
in an office environment but this may need to be increased to 21°C for
reasons given above.

4.2.4 The guide also does not give advice on the range of temperatures required
when the external temperature falls below -1°C so we assume that normal
comfortable temperatures apply.

4.2.5 By maintaining a positive air pressure in the corridors, we limit cross

contamination of the cell air with the corridor air thereby preventing foul air
and odours passing to these areas.

5. The present situation in Custody Units

5.1 Doncaster Custody Unit

5.1.2 General – The unit has been refurbished during the past 5 years and this
included the provision of new heating plant which replaced the previous
uneconomical system.

5.1.3 Ventilation - The unit has two air-handling units. There are rarely problems
with these units.

5.1.4 Heating - Heating is provide by a hot water piped system and two separate
fan units located in the light wells between the cell wings. The siting of the
unit in the lighting wells provides a number of maintenance problems as litter
is deposited in the lighting wells by the prevailing wind. Whilst the external
ducts are well insulated to prevent heat loss, this cannot prevent a reduction
in temperature at the furthest cell from the unit. This affects the ability of the
 systems to cope on the coldest days, notwithstanding that some remedial
work has taken place.

The controls valves are due to be replaced with a faster acting type and the
wiring to them will also be replaced as part of the process.

5.2 Moss Way Custody Unit

5.2.1 General - Built during the 90’s the system is relatively new, but the Home
Office specification was rigidly applied.

5.2.2 Ventilation - Both the supply and extraction unit are located in a purpose build
plant room. The system has stand-by fan facilities, but lacks automatic control
of the changeover operation on failure or time. There are no alarms related to
airflow failure in the event of either fan or inlet filter blockage. This could be
provided with little trouble, as the building is already equipped with a BMS,
(Build Management System) controlling the heating and ventilation system.

5.2.3 Heating - Heating is provided by hot water heater coils located in the air inlet
duct. There appears to be some problems with the control of the system,
which are being investigated as an ongoing issue.

5.3 Rotherham Custody Unit

5.3.1 General - The system has been modified from the original design to
accommodate the extension of the custody unit. The main areas of concern
are the male cell area centred around cell 9 as the temperature and airflows
are low. There are a number of mi nor problems with the ventilation and
heating which the building engineer can resolve.

5.3.2 Ventilation - The system could work more efficiently if the controls were
updated and the ductwork air balanced. A BMS should be installed when
funds become available to control the air control dumper systems. The
problem within the male cell areas are related to poor airflow which has been
improved by cleaning and maintenance on the extraction duct as they were
clogged with dust and paint.

5.3.3 Heating - Heating is provide by hot water heater coils. There appears to be
some problems with the control of the system, which need further
investigation as an ongoing issue. This could be solved as above by a fitting
a BMS.

5.4 Attercliffe Custody Unit

5.4.1 General - Built during the 80’s the system is relatively new, but the Home
Office specification was rigidly applied.

5.4.2 Ventilation - Two separate systems are provided for supply and extraction of
air being located close to the custody suite in a ground floor plant room. As
with Moss Way there would appear to be little in the way of alarms for airflow
 failure. Fitting a BMS and linking it into the existing building BMS could rectify
this.

5.4.3 Heating - Heating is provided by hot water heater coils. There appear to be
some problems with the controls of the system, which are being investigated
as an ongoing issue.

5.5 Ecclesfield Custody Unit

5.5.1 General - Built during the later 90’s the system is relatively new, but the Home
Office specification was rigidly applied.

5.5.2 Ventilation - Both the supply and extraction unit are located in a purpose built
plant room. The system has stand-by fan facilities but lacks automatic control
of the changeover operation on failure or time. There are no alarms related to
airflow failure in the event of either fan or inlet filter blockage.

5.5.3 Heating - Heating is provided by hot water heater coils. The control of the
system will require replacement, as the present system does not function in a
consistent way. This is due to the system requiring switching between
summer and winter modes via a manual change over switch. This coupled
with the poor performance of the heat recovery coil and heating coil means
that this system requires a subsequent amount of resource spending on it.
This would require expenditure in the form of both consultancy and installation
fees.

5.5.4 The unit is already the subject of a joint CJAD / Property Services initiative to
provide additional cooling and heating solely to the charge desk area in an
attempt to increase the comfort levels in this key circulation area.

5.6 Bridge Street Charge Office

5.6.1 General - Built during the 70’s the systems are now coming to the end of their
life cycle. The custody unit will shortly be subject to a large-scale
refurbishment, which should address the problems highlighted.

5.6.2 Ventilation - The system has separate supply and extraction fans. The plant is
old and although well maintained is now well beyond it useful life.

5.6.3 Heating - The heating system is via two heating coils. Due to age and
changing requirements the heat input falls short of providing adequate comfort
levels during the coldest weather.

5.7 Barnsley Custody Unit

5.7.1 General - The custody unit was the subject of a large-scale refurbishment
during 2001 and there are a number of problems in the way the Home Office
specification was interpreted.
 The systems have exhibited a number of problems, which are directly
attributable to problems with the design. These problems were not
insurmountable but were compounded by some installation shortcomings.

5.7.2 Ventilation - The ventilation system is provided by a combined supply and

recovery system which supplies air to the charge desk area, the system being
housed in the roof top plant room. The system is capable of supplying both
warm and cool air and is controlled by a BMS.

The design of the ventilation & ductwork required crossovers of certain ducts
but, at the building stage this was not possible due to insufficient ceiling
height. This led to ductwork taking elongated routes to facilitate the avoidance
of crossovers and caused problems with air delivery.

5.7.3 Heating - The heating system is provided by a dedicated modular boiler plant
which is located in the roof top plant room.

Many of the problems encountered during the defects period pointed to poor
installation & commissioning of the heating system as the valves were not set
and locked. This coupled with the incorrect piping of the juvenile area created
unnecessary complications.

These shortcomings have now been rectified and the heating and ventilation
systems are working to an adequate standard.

M I I Hedges
Chief Constable

Chief Officer Responsible: Ian Daines

Assistant Chief Constable Support Services
Telephone: 0114 2523405

Officer Responsible: Chief Inspector Trevor Stevens

CJAD
Telephone: 0114 2523666