Former cinema collapses onto dual carriageway

Date:

11 May 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/22Gaskells

A Liverpool demolition firm has been sentenced after poor work saw a disused cinema collapse onto a dual carriageway in Thornton Cleveleys.

Gaskells Demolition Services Ltd of Bootle was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after part of the Orion building fell onto the A587 during rush hour on Thursday 17 June 2010.

The art-deco building opened as a cinema on 24 November 1934, with more than 1,000 seats. It closed in 1961 and was used as a theatre before being converted into the Orion bingo hall in 1965. It was eventually shut for good in October 2009.

The collapsed cinema in Thornton Cleveleys

Blackpool Magistrates' Court heard Gaskells was hired to demolish the building on Crescent West ahead of a supermarket being built on the site. During the work, part of the building and scaffolding collapsed, blocking the two northbound lanes of the dual carriageway and the entire width of Runneymede Avenue for several hours.

No one was injured in the collapse but one pedestrian suffered a near-miss and a car was also damaged.

The HSE investigation found that, although the company had taken some precautions, it had failed to set up safe arrangements for the demolition such as an exclusion zone around the building. It also failed to apply to the council for temporary road closures while the work took place.

The scaffolding put up along the front of the building was to allow workers to access it, rather than to support it.

Gaskells Demolition Services Ltd admitted breaching Regulation 29(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company, of Oriel Road in Bootle, was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 in prosecution costs on 11 May 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Anthony Polec said:

"The risk of buildings unexpectedly collapsing is well known in the demolition industry but Gaskells failed to take adequate action to prevent lives being put in danger.

"The company should have put suitable measures in place to protect the public, such as applying to close the roads while the demolition work took place and setting up an exclusion zone to keep the public away.

"It could also have erected facade retention scaffolding that could support the building, rather than relying on employees to keep a lookout for passers-by.

"This was entirely inappropriate given the demolition work was taking place next to a busy dual carriageway on a weekday morning. It's only luck that no one was seriously injured."

Demolition contractors have a legal duty to make sure people are safe while buildings are being knocked down. Information on safe demolition methods is available at www.hse.gov.uk/construction.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 29(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "The demolition or dismantling of a structure, or part of a structure, shall be planned and carried out in such a manner as to prevent danger or, where it is not practicable to prevent it, to reduce danger to as low a level as is reasonably practicable."

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