Company fined after failure to manage asbestos

Date:

8 February 2011

Release No:

COISE/0802

A construction company has been fined after failing to carry out work correctly or properly manage asbestos while demolishing an old church in Snodland, Kent.

Maidstone Magistrates' Court heard the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received a complaint from a member of the public about demolition works taking place on the corner of Holborough Road in the town.

The site was owned by Bernard Berry of Berry Estates Development Limited that was also carrying out the demolition of the building.

On 23 April 2010, two HSE inspectors attended the site and discovered the majority of the building had already been demolished but debris containing asbestos was blocking the pavement on one side and had also spilled out onto the pavement on the other side.

Principal contractor, Mr Berry, could not provide paperwork such as a demolition plan, method statements or risk assessments when asked. No asbestos survey had been completed prior to the demolition and site security was very poor. A Prohibition Notice was served preventing any further work onsite.

After the notice was served Mr Berry commissioned a pre-demolition asbestos survey, which highlighted a number of asbestos containing materials across the site.

A HSE investigation showed that the building was being knocked into pedestrian areas and broken up with an excavator. It showed no evidence of employee training, no personal protection or respiratory equipment and no plan of work on site. It also revealed no provision to prevent dust spreading during demolition and crushing.

David Fussell, HSE Inspector, said:

"The company failed to take any measures aimed at controlling the workers' exposure to asbestos and reduce any future incidence of related diseases.

"This is a shocking case as it was foreseeable that a building of this age may have had asbestos-containing materials in the building fabric, as the subsequent survey highlighted.

"If the company had carried out a survey and prepared a plan of work prior to demolition, the risk of exposure to the workers onsite or the general public could have been avoided."

Berry Estates Development Limited, of Red Hill, Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 5, 7 and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, at Maidstone Magistrates' Court today (8 February 2011). It was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,391.

Bernard Berry, director of the company also pleaded guilty to breaching the same regulations at Maidstone Magistrates' Court today. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,391.

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 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states: "An employer shall not undertake work in demolition, maintenance, or any other work which exposes or is liable to expose his employees to asbestos in respect of any premises unless...he has carried out a suitable and sufficient assessment as to whether asbestos, what type of asbestos, contained in what material and in what condition, is present or is liable to be present in those premises."
3. Regulation 7 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states: "An employer shall not undertake any work with asbestos unless he has prepared a suitable written plan of work detailing how that work is to be carried out."
4. Regulation 16 of the same regulations, which states: "Every employer shall prevent or, where this is not reasonably practicable, reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable the spread of asbestos from any place where work under his control is carried out."
5. More information on asbestos surveys please see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/campaign/duty/surveys.htm

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