Wimbledon company fined for dangerous demolition site

Date:

24 October 2012

Release No:

SE/194/12

A Wimbledon construction firm has been prosecuted for endangering workers and the public with unsafe demolition work.

AA Construction (London) Ltd failed to properly plan the work at Quintin Avenue, near Wimbledon Chase tube station, in early February 2011.

Local residents raised concerns that asbestos materials were being smashed up and littering the site, that debris was dropping from height onto the road and footpath; and that the site was insecure despite its close proximity to a local school.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was notified and served three enforcement notices relating to unsafe practices that forced the site to be closed until urgent improvements were made.

Westminster Magistrates' Court heard today (24 October) that the HSE investigation found that numerous precautions could and should have been taken to make the site safe.

The company should have carried out an asbestos survey and produced a health and safety plan and a plan of demolition to ensure the buildings came down in a safe manner. Safe working platforms such as scaffolding could also have been used to prevent people and material from falling or dropping, or buildings could have been demolished remotely. Asbestos should have been removed intact to prevent the release of fibres, segregated and correctly disposed of, and debris should have been progressively cleared allowing for safe access around the site.

AA Construction also employed inexperienced labourers to carry out demolition and asbestos removal, and did not give them sufficient instruction, training, or supervision.

The company, of High Street, Wealdstone, Harrow, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £36,000 plus a £15 surcharge and with £9159 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Helen Donnelly said:

"Members of the public rightly raised concerns about the unsafe working practices they witnessed at Quintin Avenue, and I applaud them for doing so.

"AA Construction (London) Ltd took a reckless approach to demolition, which could have resulted in a serious incident.

"Construction projects need to properly planned and safely managed by competent personnel using the right procedures and equipment. That clearly didn't happen here, and I hope lessons have been learned."

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 Act 1974 states: "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 at 1974 states: "Except in such cases as may be prescribed, it shall be the duty of every employer to prepare and as often as may be appropriate revise a written statement of his general policy with respect to the health and safety at work of his employees and the organisation and arrangements for the time being in force for carrying out that policy, and to bring the statement and any revision of it to the notice of all of his employees."

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