westoelad wrote:captaincolly wrote:Interesting comments from the ITV news report:The council's planning development officer Stephen Reed said: "A pre-event operational check, which looked at security, stewarding and the availability of emergency services, was carried out at the Emirates Stadium in the run-up to this fixture.
Does that mean they didn't check the safety of the stands ?!
Surely security check means searching for hidden explosive devices and the clearest sign to detect them must be interference to fittings i.e.loose or insecure seating or flooring. So that should have been rigorously checked.
I'd have thought so, a rigorous check of the flooring should be automatic. I wonder though ( and it's just a guess because I've no idea how these things work ) if the club sort out the actual safety checks of the stands and provide documentation to the council who then do a more general check on the overall security as outlined by the council officer.
Other thing is - presumably safety checks are less rigorous on permanent stands because temporary ones, designed to be put up and taken down with ease , will potentially be less stable. The stand in question is now part of the ground but is still a temporary structure so could an error have been made by treating it as a permanent stand for the inspections?
No doubt we will find out soon enough if the accident was unavoidable or if either the club or council are culpable in some way.
