Has anyone come across a similar problems with Cat Ladders?

One of the buildings I cover is a leisure centre. A glass dome over the reception was recently vandalized by oiks who got on to roof (during the school holidays) armed with a can of spray paint. The building has two external cat ladders which have been locked off with a metal plate and a padlock. The athletic vandals were able to get around this and on to the roof. As the roof can be accessed from a ceiling hatch inside the building, I cannot see what purpose they serve and would like to remove them completely. I cannot see how they form any part of the fire exit system unless they are there to allow a maintenance worker on the roof to come down without re-entering the building (which he would find difficult if had gone up the through the ceiling hatch without removing the locking plate first). I am now going to go through the building plans and may need to contact the fire service, just wondered if it had come up before?

regards,

Tim