Wiltshire firm failed to prevent fall risk

Date:

15 July 2011

A Wiltshire firm has been prosecuted for compromising worker safety after using a homemade harness system during a barn renovation project.

Agricultural contractor Ashton Farms Limited, of Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge, exposed employees to a fall from height risk at Manor Farm Grittleton, on Alderton Road, in Chippenham.

Chippenham Magistrates Court heard today (15 July) that when a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspector visited the farm on 15 October last year, she found two workers installing a roof to an outbuilding without adequate edge protection or nets to prevent them from falling.

The court heard they were using an unvalidated homemade running line and harness system, which would not have prevented a fall and which was unlikely to have prevented injury should a fall have occurred.

Ashton Farms was previously served with a Prohibition Notice (PN) on 12 July 2010 at another farm after failing to take all reasonably practicable measures to plan and carry out work at height in a safe, controlled manner.

Speaking after the case HSE Inspector Annette Walker commented:

"In addition to serving the earlier Prohibition Notice, the Health and Safety Executive also had a meeting with Ashton Farms to ensure there was no margin for misunderstanding of the expected standards in working at height on roofs.

"This type of work poses a risk of serious injury and even death, and Ashton Farms could and should have ensured they had suitable protection in place whilst renovating the barn in Chippenham.

"In this instance there was no injury, but the company chose to ignore the previous warnings and continued to carry out work in an unsafe manner."

Ashton Farms Limited of Spiers Piece Farm, Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge, Wiltshire pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and were fined £4,000 for each charge (£8,000 in total) and ordered to pay costs of £3,986.

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. Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 says it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.
3. Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states it shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.
4. Health and safety legislation is currently under the spotlight as part of the Cabinet Office's Red Tape Challenge. To have your say on which regulations should stay and which should be scrapped, visit: http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/home/index/ and the Government will consider your views.
5. Further guidance on health and safety issues relating to safety when working at height can be found on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk//falls/index
6. HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR (South West)