The owners of the Ventura Park unit gutted in the 11 August fire that shut the M25 want to knock it down. Their engineers say the steel frame is too twisted to save.

The warehouse at Ventura Park in Colney Street that burned on 11 August is to be demolished. Its owners have asked St Albans City and District Council to approve the method, in an application registered on 13 October.

Colney Street is on the A5183 about four miles south of St Albans city centre, beside the M25. The fire closed the motorway in both directions while crews were at the scene.

The building is Unit C, Ventura Park, Old Parkbury Lane. The application, reference 26/1811/PADEM, was made by Savills for the owner, UK Commercial Property Finance Holdings Limited. It says the building must come down “as quickly as possible to clear the site and eliminate health and safety risks posed by the remaining structure”.

What the engineers found

The owner’s consultants, I&L Consulting, inspected the building on 21 August, ten days after the fire. Their report is filed with the application. It says:

  • the steel portal frames of Unit C are “extensively distorted and twisted” and unlikely to be reusable
  • there are “loose, unsecured and potentially unstable elements” inside, so the structure is “a significant health and safety risk”
  • the fire was particularly intense, which the report links to flammable chemicals stored in the unit by its tenant, the sun-care maker MalibuSun
  • firefighters blocked the drains during the incident, which the consultants take as a step to stop contaminated water reaching the sewer or a watercourse
  • the ground beneath Unit C may be contaminated, so the floor slab and possibly the foundations may have to be dug out later

The firewall between the two halves of the building did its job, the report says. The neighbouring Unit D, used by Pallet Network Limited, has smoke damage throughout and a badly damaged separating wall. Its main frame appears to have “remained substantially unaffected”. Unit D is being kept.

The report does not say what caused the fire, and neither does anything else in the application.

The day of the fire

A Hertfordshire Constabulary alert sent during the fire said the M25 was closed “between junction 21a and 22 in both directions, due to smoke from a Warehouse fire in Colney Street”. Colney Street and Old Parkbury Lane were also shut. Residents were told to keep windows and doors closed, and drivers to keep car windows shut.

How the building will come down

HiTec Demolition Services has written the method statement. In outline:

  1. an asbestos survey first; one suspected asbestos gasket has already been found in the steelwork
  2. fencing and an exclusion zone round the site, with daily checks on the damaged structure
  3. demolition from the top down with a 30-tonne excavator, brick panels first, then the steel
  4. water spray or misting to keep dust down, and materials lowered rather than dropped
  5. everything cleared down to the concrete floor slab, leaving the site level and secure

Unit D will be watched throughout, and any wall left exposed will be made safe.

What happens next

This is a prior approval application, not a full planning application. Demolition of a building like this is permitted development. The council can only decide whether it needs to approve the method of demolition and how the site is restored, not whether the building comes down.

The council received the application on 5 October. Under the permitted development rules, if it does not tell the developer within 28 days of receiving it that prior approval is needed, the demolition can go ahead. The owner must also put up a site notice for at least 21 days. The register lists the application as “Pending Consideration”.

What it means for you

If you work on or use Ventura Park, expect fencing, an excavator and lorries taking waste away once work starts. The method statement says noisy hours will be agreed with regular breaks.

If you live nearby, the documents are on the council’s new planning register, and comments can be made there against reference 26/1811/PADEM. The case officer is listed on the application.

If you were caught in the M25 closure in August, this is the clean-up. No date for the work has been published.

What is being built and decided across the district is on St Albans planning news, and road closures on St Albans roadworks and travel.

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