Luxury property developer fined for putting lives at risk

Date:

30 March 2012

Release No:

HSE/NW/81huntsmere

A Cheshire property developer has been sentenced after putting the lives of its workers at risk, by allowing them to work in an unsupported excavation.

Workers were put at risk of being buried, trapped, crushed or struck by rock if part of the excavation collapsed

Huntsmere Projects Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an unannounced inspection of work on a new luxury five bedroom mansion on Trafford Road in Alderley Edge on 19 August 2010.

The HSE inspectors issued an immediate Prohibition Notice, ordering two workers to leave the excavation for the foundations, which were approximately 20 metres wide and over 5 metres deep, until the site had been made safe.

Macclesfield Magistrates' Court was told the workers were put at risk of being buried, trapped, crushed or struck by rock if part of the excavation collapsed. Well established health and safety measures had not been implemented, despite the company having received previous guidance from HSE and its own advisers.

Structural support was not provided to the sides of the excavation pit, which were partly made of soft, sandy clay, and the sides had not been sufficiently battered back to a safe angle.

A large heap of soil had also been placed close to the edge of the pit and excavator track marks showed a digger had been driven along the rim of the excavation, increasing the risk of it collapsing.

The court heard no barriers or fencing had been erected to keep vehicles away from the edge, or prevent workers being injured in a fall.

Huntsmere Projects Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 31(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 by failing to prevent workers being put in danger.

The company, of Elizabeth Street in Macclesfield, was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £3,837 in prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Catherine Willars, said:

"The lives of the people working on this project were put in danger due to the very real risk of the excavation collapsing.

"Huntsmere Projects controlled the site and all the work being carried out on it, but the company failed to implement the necessary safety measures and ignored its own procedures for making excavations safe.

"This prosecution should alert the construction industry to the risk of legal action where health and safety on a site falls way below acceptable standards."

There were 50 deaths and nearly 3,000 major injuries reported in the construction industry in Great Britain in 2010/11. Information on construction safety 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 31(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "All practicable steps shall be taken, where necessary to prevent danger to any person, including, where necessary, the provision of supports or battering, to ensure that any excavation or part of an excavation does not collapse; no material from a side or roof of, or adjacent to, any excavation is dislodged or falls; and no person is buried or trapped in an excavation by material which is dislodged or falls."

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