Council joinery shop that makes 'probably the best fire doors in the world' to expand to meet soaring demand

Plans to relocate Bristol City Council’s renowned joinery shop, which makes “probably the best fire doors in the world”, into bigger premises to meet soaring demand have been approved. The prestigious workshop has outgrown its current base at the Wellington Road depot in St Jude’s and is having to turn down requests for bespoke carpentry work from the housing department and other local authorities, costing the cash-strapped council vital income.

The homes and housing delivery committee unanimously backed moving the joinery to a larger commercial-rented property after hearing the alternative, the council’s Sandy Park depot, would need a £2.3million upgrade, including creating a “building within a building” and steel reinforcement of the flooring. This would take two years and the Grade II-listed premises, which is not straightforward to convert in terms of planning issues, would also be 20 per cent smaller than the workshop’s minimum requirements to expand its operations.

A report to the meeting, said an unnamed vacant private-rented property owned by Ikea just over two miles away had been identified as a possible new home. It would take less than nine months to fit out and could be ready by next summer when the plan is for the joinery to vacate Wellington Road and then City Leap partner Vattenfall to turn it into an energy centre for the Frome Gateway district heating network, with all new development in the area required to connect to it.

The report said a £1.25million capital budget had been approved and that investment in new machinery to improve productivity and develop new products would double the workshop’s revenue from £3million to £6million over the next four years. It said that although the rent would be higher than council-owned Sandy Park, this was more than offset by the lower fit-out costs of just £200,000 and a much bigger increase in income.

The report said the joinery’s 23-strong workforce would rise to about 40, as well as creating more apprenticeships. It said: “The move to a commercial premises is financially the best solution as it offers lower initial investment, a quicker payback, and a higher risk of success of the benefits being delivered.

“By increasing the capacity of the workshop this will give an opportunity to grow the workforce in future years and reduce pressure on the current workforce who currently do a significant amount of overtime. Demand has increased due to fire safety legislative changes in the sector.

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“Internally Bristol City Council has accelerated the fire door replacement programme and externally other local authorities are seeking providers to supply high quality fire doors. The demand has meant that the joinery shop has been unable to produce enough fire doors and requires to contract out work at an increased cost to the council.

“Bristol City Council is also continuing to turn down work for internal project teams and other local authorities.” Committee chairman Cllr Barry Parsons (Green, Easton) told the meeting that on a site visit councillors were shown a door that had saved a resident’s life in the fatal fire at Twinnell House in Easton in September 2022 in which a man died after falling from a 16th floor window while trying to escape.

Cllr Parsons said the door was ablaze on the outside but the tenant was safe in their flat. He said: “It was a moving experience.”

Cllr Paul Goggin (Labour, Hartcliffe & Withywood) said: “The joinery team make, in the words of a beer manufacturer, ‘probably the best fire doors in the world’. It saves people’s lives, and not just in Bristol.”

Cllr Richard Eddy (Conservative, Bishopsworth) said the move to commercial private premises rather than Sandy Park was “utterly the right decision”. He said: “We were really impressed by the visit we made.

“The Twinnell House door was really instructive. Clearly a move to Sandy Park would not be the right one.

“It’s not appropriate, it’s very difficult in planning heritage terms to convert, it would be expensive and it would be further delaying this.” Cllr Jos Clark (Lib Dem, Brislington West) said it was a “no-brainer” to move to a private rented property.

She said: “One of the reasons it’s a success is because it’s our business. It’s all bespoke stuff. We have odd-shaped windows, we have odd-shaped doors, and that commands a high price within the commercial market.”

Members approved an amendment to the officers’ recommendation by Cllr Lisa Stone (Green, Windmill Hill) to ensure the new lease had a five-year break clause to consider whether the joinery should move back to a council-owned building at that point.

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