[Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Counties of Perth & Kinross.

  • Perthshire (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Counties of Perth & Kinross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    103/156 (page 93)
    There was a notable increase in the number of applications for the erection of broiler chicken houses. The method of rearing chickens for broiling is highly specialised and requires that the birds shall be reared under conditions giving regulated heat and ; good insulation. This led to specially designed buildings, the walls of villich were largely timber, of cubic capacities within a range of 20,000 cu.ft. to approximately 120,000 cu.ft. and con- taining a heating system fed by bottled gas. The floors of the houses are usually made up with a deep layer of wood shavings which, combined with the other features of the buildings, presented a potential fire hazard. For those buildings with a cubic capacity not exceeding 80,000 cu.ft. it was simply a case of applying the requirements of Table 10 of the Byelaws but where buildings exceeded 80,000 cu.ft. capacity (as do all the 20,000 bird houses) the minimum requirements of the Byelaws demanded a non-combustible external cladding to the walls. To meet this requirement would have I meant a costly alteration to the standard production building, thus placing a hardship on the applicants, vhich in some circumstances would be difficult to justify from a practical viewpoint. Neverthe- less, the intention of the Byelaw's was clear enough and it was felt that some safeguard had to be provided against the spread of fire and the difficulty was resolved, after consultation with the Firemaster, by accepting the larger buildings with timber walls provided that a distance of not less than 60 feet was maintained betwreen them and any other buildings and land in different occupation. A further complication arose with these buildings when it was found that conditions laid down under the Building Byelaws regarding the siting of the gas containers were conflicting with the legal requirements placed on the Gas Companies for such installations. The Gas Companies are required to work to a Code of Safe Practice issued by the