The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the council for failing to address the 'quite obvious risk' of employees at The Hull Ice Arena slipping over.
Hull Crown Court heard that on 30th August 2014 a worker was marking the lines for the ice hockey pitch when he slipped, suffering head injuries and breaking three ribs.
When the HSE investigated, it found that it wasn’t the first time that an employee had fallen over on the ice.
Hull City Council of The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £185,000 plus £44,442.71 costs.
HSE inspector Denise Fotheringham said after the hearing commented: “No effective measures had been taken to reduce the risks of employees working on ice. Measures could have included providing systems of work that avoided the need for working on ice in the first place. Where this was not reasonably practicable, providing suitable footwear for working on slippery surfaces such as ice would have been an appropriate measure against a quite obvious risk.”
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