Dodgy radial in kitchen

[synec]

Old House rewired in early 1980s (I think - long before I moved in) and updated with a new CU in 2005 to replace semi enclosed RW fusebox and aged ELCB. The electrician carried out the work and provided a certificate for the work and determined that the condition of the existing wiring was adequate. I had wanted to add a socket adjacent to the kitchen (at the head of the cellar stairs) for a charging point for a hand torch. I find that two sockets (spur off spur) under the worktop (powering a dishwasher, hob igniter, fridge) with a third spur off one of them serving a toaster and coffee machine have all, as far as I can determine, been daisy chained off a 32A ring in 2.5 T&E - the CU isolates both the ring elsewhere and these sockets. (The cooker supply has been converted to a 16A radial and now serves sockets fixed to cupboard soffits above the worktop - serves kettle and other worktop appliances). Calculation suggests an overload condition. While there does not appear to have been a problem over the last few years I am concerned that this is more by luck than judgement. I believe that there are two possible approaches to resolve this (access to existing wiring is limited) would be to disconnect the the ad hoc radial (installed, I suspect, by the previous kitchen fitter in the 1980s) at the first socket and then run the three sockets in question into the ring (via a JB) which should be relatively straightforward to deal with. The other is to fuse down the radial at the first spur but this would mean supplying some of the equipment from the above worktop circuit. My questions are these: is supplying some of the kitchen sockets off the house ring (it is a small house)acceptable and, assuming that the radial is replaced as described above, what is the best method of 'capping off' the existing supply leg safely?

I should add that I don't blame the electrician who carried out the CU replacement as they were not asked to carry out a rewire (even though he did take a new earth wire straight past the offending radial!) and the problem was not easy to spot. After all, it has taken me 6 years to spot it.

 

[FingRinal]

I've seen some real lash ups, especially in kitchens, when someone has tried to extend a ring or convert a radial into a ring.

One solution might be to reduce the 32A protecting the ring to 20A. Or split the ring into two 20A radials.

The cooker radial as you've described it sounds OK, though I wonder what size cable is being used (and if 6mm whether or not it has had cores snipped to enable termination in the sockets).

 

[luminaire]

The electrician carried out the work and provided a certificate for the work and determined that the condition of the existing wiring was adequate.

I would like to see what the certificate said.
Can you supply a pic of it?

 

[synec]

When I find it; of course (after blanking company names etc). The electrician did say something along the lines of not wanting to touch the existing installation apart from carrying out tests as required to determine the acceptability of the CU replacement (which included a huge SWA cable chased into the wall to feed the CU from the meter cupboard). It was also inspected by the supply company (I think) and the BCO (ditto).