Marybone consultation in Science

From: Hannigan, David
Sent: 14 April 2015 10:48
To: Denton, Philip
Cc: Hill, Lynn; Davies, Colin; Leigh, Aly; Milsom, Clare
Subject: RE: Marybone consultation in Science

Phil,

Thanks for your e-mail and for taking the time to gather this useful information.

Can I assure you and your colleagues that Estate Management have been listening to your complaints and have been working in the background to resolve the issues raised. I would like to detail some of the actions we have,  and will, be taking to bring these issues to a satisfactory conclusion:

Ceiling

Since the problem with the ceiling first occurred  we have been working with Sanctuary Housing, our landlords, to resolve the issue. It has been difficult to discover the source of the leak due to the nature of the 'inverted' roof construction which consists of a concrete slab, waterproof membrane, insulation and paving slabs. The roof of the lecture theatre forms a courtyard to the student accommodation and water appears to be penetrating through the membrane and finding its way through the slab via the drainage penetrations which are, unfortunately for us, located in the lecture theatre. Our landlords have made several attempts to locate the leak and prevent water ingress, the latest of which, at the beginning of last week, appears to have been successful. They reinstated the ceiling last week but have asked if they could leave some of the ceiling tiles out so that they can monitor the situation. We have agreed to that request. I am in the process of collating the historical data which will evidence the poor history of this roof and will be requesting that the landlord's lift the whole of the courtyard during the summer and apply a new waterproof membrane to the roof.

Lighting

As you can appreciate an intermittent fault on any system can be difficult to isolate so we have been going through a process of elimination with the lighting system to try to establish the nature of the problem.

We have had ten reported lighting faults through the help desk since the start of the academic year, four of which were generated by the Estate Management team. In response to this we have replaced the dimmer control panel which was faulty, repaired or relamped all the light fittings, checked the wiring installation, and had a further service check carried out by the lighting control manufacturer. 

The information you have provided has given us a more detailed insight into the nature of the faults and we are currently working with the AV team to establish the fidelity of the control links between the AV system and the lighting control. 

With this in mind I would appreciate some further help from you and your colleagues to try and resolve this problem. Could I ask that anyone who experiences any problem with the lighting system contact our help desk on ext5533 as soon as it is practical to do so with the following details:

1. What they were doing at the time e.g. dimming lights, switching them on, just presenting without touching the system, etc.

2. What lights were affected by the fault, e.g. front row, back row, wall lights, all lights.

3. What time this took place.

I appreciate that it is difficult to deliver a lecture and report a fault via telephone so, alternatively, staff may e-mail me direct with the issues.

With the permission of you and your colleagues I would also like to sit in on some of the lectures to see if I can experience the problem first hand.

AV/WiFi

Estate Management have been working with the AV team to improve the quality of the AV service. Following the identification of problems with the sound and projection quality a faulty AV switch was identified and a new one ordered which is due for delivery shortly. IT Services will also be installing additional WiFi coverage to the lecture theatre once we have installed additional data outlets.

The AV team is also establishing the costs of upgrading the AV system to provide a more reliable system and, subject to funding, this will be installed prior to the next academic year.

Temperature

The temperature in the theatre is monitored through our Trend Building Energy Management System. I arranged to monitor the temperature during one lecture and the data shows some differences in temperature across the room and between the readings in the room and the Trend sensor. We therefore intend to install an additional sensor in the room to get an average reading for closer control of the room temperature.  The temperature within the space was between 19degC and 21degC for the duration of the lecture. This is within University guidelines.

I trust this has covered the issues raised but if you wish to discuss anything further please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Dave