October 2024

Solutions suggested in October 2024 and responses/actions taken.

Thank you to everyone who submitted solutions to the Solutions Box in June to October 2024. We have summarised the proposed solutions below along with responses and actions where possible.

Please note the box should not be used for issues where there are more appropriate routes, which will generate more timely and appropriate action e.g. building faults or HR issues. Guidance can be found on the IRR Solutions Box page.

IRR Solutions Box home page

Building and General

Please raise any issues with parking and access to transport and parking. 

With regards to access at weekends, please contact IRR reception to request Out of Hours access, which will enable you to park at IRR North carpark from 17.30 – 08.00 (Mon-Fri) and all day at weekends. 


We are looking into installing EV points at IRR, however are awaiting further input from estates. 


This land area is owned by the BioQuarter, so we will ask the Building Manager Rebecca Aucott to reach out to them.


Ongoing, the lab management team are aware. 


We have requested that the servitorial team ensure that communal washing up areas are supplied with washing liquid and cloths. 


For lab temperature issues please report it to your IRR Lab Manager to investigate in the first instance.  

If you have specific temperature issue please ensure you advise which location has the issue as without details of the exact location this cannot be investigated 

Where we have been advised an exact area the problem is, we have raised the issues with the Controls department of Estates. 

For office temperature issues in IRR North offices make sure the radiator/s are either turned on or off using the thermostat on each radiator. If the thermostat is broken please report as a building fault to IRR reception.


Sessions are advertised in the monthly IRR newsletter as well as an email 7 days before and a reminder on the day.   

Drop in sessions are also advertised on the totems and TV screens around the building ahead of time.


The area extending beyond the barrier is owned by the Council and a request of this nature is likely to be declined. 

Whilst the path alongside the main road is not connected to the path alongside the bike shed, there is the option to dismount and cross the grass.


Notice boards are important points of reference for sharing H&S information and a mandatory part of university inspections.   This is where you will find fire safety and buildings related information as well as a list of first aiders and emergency contact details. 

The new IRR Sharepoint is a work in progress and all H&S documentation will be uploaded here to make it easily accessible for all. 

We expect this to be live in autumn 2024 and will update everyone as it happens. This will allow the website to become an essential outward-facing resource for IRR. 


Please see previous response re services in the Translation Hub on L3 (March 2024). 


Lab and facilities

Ongoing, the lab management team are aware. 


Lab coats can be stored folded on lab chairs as per lab coat policy if the user doesn’t want to store on a lab coat hook.


This is something we have investigated in the past and is currently being looked into for certain specialist areas.   

We decided against this in the main labs as the nature of the work carried out is mainly biological labs.  Gloves have always been treated as contaminated as soon as they are worn which is why they aren’t disposed of in normal bins or used to open doors etc.   

We would be concerned that we couldn’t guarantee gloves being presented for recycling were clean and the resources needed for the scale of our institute to check this would be prohibitive.


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