Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors visited the site of a former aerospace plant in Burnley in August 2014 in response to a complaint. They saw a worker stripping slates from a fragile roof without any measures in place to prevent a fall through it, or mitigate the potential life-threatening effects of such a fall... apart from hard hats and high viz vests.
Falls from height accounted for 19 of the 42 deaths on British construction sites last year (45%) and 35% of the major injuries.
KML (Properties) Ltd pleaded guilty at Burnley Magistrates’ Court last week to a breach of Work at Height Regulations and was fined £10,400.
The company, of Brunswick Street, Nelson, also pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and was fined £2,000 for each. These breaches related to failing to plan the work being undertaken and also to provide adequate welfare facilities for operatives carrying out work on site.
Total fines were therefore £14,400 and the firm must also pay full HSE prosecution costs of £1,276 and a victim surcharge of £200.
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