| Bradstow School, a Kent based Wandsworth special needs school, recently opened a modern new residential block for their pupils, secured by the UK’s largest zero-running cost sliding gate.
A major part of such a large expansion of the facilities at the school was serious consideration of the security and safety for the residential pupils. The new block needed to be easliy accessible during the day, with clear access to the main teaching buildings. But during the evening, the gate must be closed to ensure the pupils' safety in the residential apartments.
"We identified the need for an automatically closing gate and then decided that we should look at "greener" options i.e. solar power. We saw an article that mentioned a solar powered gate had been installed at a school in Whitstable and I contacted the company, The Green Gate Company", commented Martin Foryan, Facilities Manager at the school.
Using a cantilever sliding gate allowed the most secure solution to be installed, whilst preserving the maximum amount of room in the new car park for vehicles. The access control for the gate was relatively standard with key code entry and exit and twin safety beams used to prevent the gate closing on vehicles or people. There was however one major addition that required careful consideration due to the specific nature of the pupils at the school. It was decided that if the emergency alarms at the school were to go off, that the gate must close at all costs to prevent panicking students leaving the grounds and safety of the residential car park. The gate control system is therefore connected to the school fire alarm system which triggers a close, over-riding the daily open timer, if required. It was also essential that the close over-ride could be counter-acted by using the key codes to allow emergency services to gain entry as required.
"The most important benefit to the school is that there are no running costs. I have been very pleased with the communication from the start of the project. I would recommend The Green Gate Company to anyone." Concludes Mr Foryan. |
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