Peter is a Chartered Building Control Surveyor qualifying in 1980 with over 33 years in the profession, and worked initially for West Dorset District Council before moving to Bath City Council in 1986 and as an Approved Inspector since 1997 when he co-founded Rexon Day Building Control now Oculus Building Consultancy. He has worked on a large variety of buildings during his career but generally focusing on major construction projects and historic buildings.
He lectures on fire safety and the Building Regulations at the University of Bath to graduates on the architectural degree course, to post-graduates studying the MSc Course, Conservation of Historic Buildings, the RIBA Part III course and at seminars.
During his Local Government career, with a proactive approach to the problems associated with Bath's historic buildings, Peter has produced a number of publications to endeavour to reconcile the conflicts that arise between the Building Regulations and conservation and recently has contributed to a series of volumes on conservation published by Blackwells – see below. He has represented the Association of Consultant Approved Inspectors as a member of a consultant’s panel for English Heritage for their publications for Energy Efficiency in Traditional Buildings.
Peter acts as an expert witness for Building Regulations and health and safety related cases. He is also an art historian and has written the definitive book on the artist Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond and has lectured on the artist both in this country and in the USA.