Building firm showed ‘scant regard’ for safety

Safety & Health Practitioner

A Wigan based building firm has been fined after serious safety failings were uncovered following a preventative inspection carried out as part of a Construction Inspection Initiative at a Skyline Building Services Limited site on 11 February 2016.

Skyline Building Services Limited was responsible for managing work at a house renovation at Fletsand Road, Wilmslow.

During the inspection of the site, the HSE Inspector found:

• Standards of safety, relating in particular to work at height, slips and trips and tidiness, were extremely poor
• Edge protection was missing or removed, rendering workers vulnerable to falls from height
• Debris was not removed from the site but tipped at the rear, burying the footings of scaffolding and making access unsafe.

Manchester Magistrates Court also heard that the supervision by management at the site was inadequate, resulting in a failure by all workers to deal with the risks present. During the inspection, a Prohibition Notice (PN) was served immediately halting all work on site except to make good the defects relating to falls from height, and an Improvement Notice was served to clear excessive waste.

Skyline Building Services Limited of Foundry Gate, Leyland Mill Lane, Wigan pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 18(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Regulation 4 (1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,095.60.

Speaking after the hearing HSE Inspector Ian Betley said: “Numerous failings were found on this site, including serious risks of falls from height and site tidiness that could have resulted in major injuries or even death.

“Skyline Building Services Limited showed scant regard for the safety of the workers they were responsible for and it was fortunate that nobody was seriously injured or killed.”