UK parliament could suffer same fate as Notre Dame, warn MPs
Palace of Westminster caught fire 40 times between 2008 and
2012 alone
Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent
@jessicaelgot
Tue 16 Apr 2019 10.00 BST Last modified on Tue 16 Apr 2019
10.36 BST
MPs have warned that the Palace of Westminster is at
critical risk of a devastating fire. Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images
MPs are warning that the Palace of Westminster is at
critical risk of a fire that could prove as devastating as the blaze at Notre
Dame Cathedral unless rapid action is taken to update parliament’s crumbling
interior.
A multibillion-pound programme of restoration and renewal is
to start in the mid-2020s after MPs and peers voted last year to move out of
the building in order to allow the vital work to be carried out.
Fire safety teams constantly patrol the neo-gothic Palace of
Westminster, which caught fire 40 times between 2008 and 2012 alone; the small
fires were quickly put out by wardens.
In 2016, the Guardian reported that a malfunctioning light
on an obscure part of the roof caused an electrical fire that could have spread
rapidly, had it not been detected. Parliament’s ageing electrical system and
maze of shafts and corridors mean a fire could spread quickly and
unpredictably, experts have warned, with no proper system of fire
compartmentalisation.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the finance committee
overseeing parliament’s restoration project, said: “Watching Paris tonight
reminds me of the responsibility our generation has for the Palace of
Westminster, especially Westminster Hall, which dates from the 11th century.
“We have taken far too long already putting our fire safety
measures in place. Parts of the palace are as old as Notre Dame and we must
make sure that every fire precaution is taken as the major work goes ahead. God
knows we’ve had enough warnings.”
The Cabinet Office minister, David Lidington, Theresa May’s
de facto deputy, wrote a column in his local newspaper, Bucks Free Press, two
days ago saying that parliament had been lucky to escape a major fire or
incident in recent years.
“Several times in the last year, chunks of masonry have
fallen off buildings. We’ve been very lucky no one has been seriously injured,”
he wrote, shortly after MPs had to evacuate the Commons chamber because of a
water leak.
“Worse, the electrical, plumbing, heating and sewerage
systems are well beyond their expected working lifespan and in a dilapidated
state. With each year that passes, the risk of a catastrophic fire grows.”
Much of the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed in a
fire in 1834 and later rebuilt by the architect Charles Barry, though the
900-year-old Westminster Hall survived the blaze.
Lidington said the restoration work could not be avoided
even if the buildings were turned into a museum and parliament moved to a
modern building. “Even if parliament were to move permanently to another place,
we would have an obligation to restore and renew the buildings,” he wrote.
“It’s sometimes argued that parliament should move to
another city. The difficulty with that is that ministers are also MPs, and have
to divide their time between their departments and parliament. So if you moved
parliament, you’d have to move all the major government departments too, and
still pay to repair the palace.”
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