Four firms had faced charges over Crewe fire in 2023

A trial into alleged breaches of fire safety regulations by four companies in Cheshire has collapsed, with formal not guilty verdicts entered against six companies involved.

The Beechmere retirement village in Crewe was destroyed by a fire on 8 August, 2019, with 150 residents losing their homes.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service initially pursued six firms but action against two of them was subsequently dropped.

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Source: Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service

The fire in August 2019 left 150 residents without a home

The trial against the remaining four began on Tuesday but the fire service said it had “regrettably” decided to withdraw its prosecutions.

“Following extensive legal submissions heard over the first two days of the trial, unfortunately it became clear this morning that there would be no realistic prospect of securing convictions,” chief fire officer Alex Waller said yesterday (Wednesday).

He added: “After carefully considering legal advice, regrettably we have taken the very difficult decision to withdraw our prosecution case against all four defendants.”

The four defendants, all of whom pleaded not guilty, faced a total of 14 charges between them.

They were:

  • Avantage (Cheshire) Ltd – contracted to procure the design, build and finance of Beechmere and operate the village
  • Your Housing Ltd – employed staff at Beechmere and was the ‘responsible person’ for fire safety measures
  • Morgan Sindall Property Services Ltd – the facilities management subcontractor to Avantage with responsibility for responsive repairs and cyclical maintenance
  • Total Fire Group Ltd – contracted to carry out fire risk assessments in August 2017 and August 2018 at Beechmere

In a statement, Your Housing said: “We fully recognise the impact of the devastating fire at the Beechmere Retirement Living Scheme in 2019, which was part of the Avantage PFI, and our focus ever since has been supporting residents and colleagues who were affected.

“We have always maintained that we were not guilty of the charges which were brought against us and welcome the decision by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to withdraw its prosecution of all charges against Your Housing Limited and Avantage, which led the Court to record a not guilty verdict on all charges.”

Last October, six charges against roofing contractor MAC Roofing Ltd were dropped and the two against WSP UK Ltd were dropped in February this year. Not guilty verdicts were entered for both.

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