Health and safety fail

After yesterday’s ridicule of H+S, a building firm in Merton has been hauled up in front of the courts after running the most dangerous site in the country for a while. Here’s their catalogue of health and safety errors, and how they should have done it to make their work at height, safe. What they did What they should have used No safe access to the first floor: they used a bag of sand, blocks and a hut roof! A scaffold tower with internal access ladder Wooden planks from hut roof to the first floor with no protection rail A scaffold tower with protection rail An unguarded, unsupported 2.5m excavation trench Protection rail and support joists Uneven work surface with tools and obstacles creating trip hazards Tool vaults and boardwalks or youngman boards They also had a filthy toilet and a leaking cold water supply. HSE visited the site several times, but standards did not improve even after three prohibition notices, so the Wimbledon-based Kubik Homes and Bromley-based Bellway Developments were fined £8k each and ordered to pay costs of £2,426.50 and £2,384 respectively.

For more information on Health and safety fail talk to Lakeside Hire