If the summer of 1999 follows the pattern set in 1997 and 1998, then drawing up a strategy for coping with excessive temperatures in the workplace is likely to remain a purely hypothetical exercise. However, in the unlikely event of the thermometer soaring to heights unrecorded in the past year or two, Bradford Council employees should be spared the discomfort that much of the rest of Britain's workforce will have to endure.

The "comfort strategy" drawn up by a working party and distributed to Council managers could well be the envy of workers in many other organisations who have to soldier on in heat created not just by weather conditions but also by computers in the office.

Its proposals are humane and enlightened. If they start to feel the heat, workers will be able to take themselves off to a special "chill-out room" for ten to 15 minutes to regain their composure. They will be provided with cool drinks and chilled spring-water dispensers, and some might even be allowed to wear shorts.

It all sounds very Utopian. But is it realistic? With chill-out breaks on top of any existing smoking breaks, what sort of inroads are going to be made into the working day?

It is commendable of the Council to want to improve working conditions for its staff in the event of a heat wave. But those working elsewhere and coping with high temperatures by opening a window and undoing their top button might well wonder whether setting up a working group to devise a strategy is not rather overdoing things.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.