A proactive inspection by the HSE uncovered serious safety failings by a company that was carrying out roof repairs at a house in Croydon.
On 28 April 2009, the HSE carried out an inspection at the property after noticing that the scaffolding was poorly positioned. The inspector found that Brunwin Professional Roofing Services Ltd had been contracted to repair the property’s roof, but the job had expanded, at the owner’s request, to remove and replace rotten barge boards from the pitch roof.
In order to remove the barge boards workers also needed to detach soffits, which were holding the boards in place. So that they could create space to move the soffits they took out two scaffold boards, which left an unprotected gap between the building and the scaffold that was large enough for the two workers on site to fall through.
Inspectors also found that the barge boards contained asbestos and the company was not licenced to remove asbestos. HSE inspector Bose Ogunsekan told SHP that the company had failed to request or carry out an asbestos survey before starting the work. She issued two Prohibition Notices during her inspection, which required work to stop until the scaffold was suitably modified, and the remaining boards were removed and disposed of by a licenced contractor.
Inspector Ogunsekan said: “Brunwin Professional Roofing Services failed to carry out work in a safe way. Major injuries and fatal accidents can occur on small jobs as well as large schemes. I hope the result of this case indicates the importance of managing health and safety on what was considered to be a small project.”
Brunwin Professional Roofing Services appeared at City of London Magistrates’ Court on 15 July and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.8(1) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and reg.6(3) of the Work at Height 2005 Regulations. It was fined a total of £6000 and ordered to pay full costs of £2406.
In mitigation, the firm said it had no previous convictions and entered early guilty pleas. It said it had not been expecting to carry out any other work except the roof repairs, and so it had not created a fresh safe system of work to remove the barge boards. The company also said it thought that it only needed a licence to remove asbestos if the materials contained brown asbestos, which the boards did not.
