A CONSTRUCTION company has been fined £20,000 for a catalogue of health and safety failings that put workers’ lives at risk on a building site.

Work was taking place to convert an old bank into offices on London Road in Alderley Edge.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspected the site on October 9, 2020.

HSE found many health and safety failings, including several areas where workers could have fallen from height, a risk of exposure to hazardous substances, and inadequate welfare facilities.

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The company doing the work, Daniel Taylor Builder and Architectural Woodworker Limited, was served with three prohibition notices prohibiting unsafe activities and five improvement notices requiring the company to take remedial action to comply with the law.

An HSE investigation then found the firm had previously been the subject of enforcement action relating to unsafe work at height at both its construction sites and joinery workshop.

Knutsford Guardian: The Health and Safety Executive found that workers could have fallen from height a the London Road construction siteThe Health and Safety Executive found that workers could have fallen from height a the London Road construction site (Image: Health and Safety Executive)

The investigation also found company director David Taylor was acting as site manager at the London Road site.

He had failed to ensure the necessary health and safety measures were implemented to protect employees and others, despite the previous HSE interventions.

Daniel Taylor Builder and Architectural Woodworker Limited, of Wheelwrights Yard, Congleton, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The company was fined £20,000 following its early guilty plea, and ordered to pay £1,507.71 costs at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on February 8, 2023.

Knutsford Guardian: HSE said workers were at risk of being exposed to hazardous substances and there were inadequate welfare facilitiesHSE said workers were at risk of being exposed to hazardous substances and there were inadequate welfare facilities (Image: Health and Safety Executive)

David William Taylor, of New Road, Congleton, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Taylor, 77, was fined £10 by the district judge taking into account the totality of sentencing this defendant as a director of the company, his early guilty plea, positive references and his cooperation with HSE enforcement action.

The defendant was ordered to pay £1,507.71 costs at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court.

HSE inspector Sinead Martin said: “This type of proactive prosecution will highlight to the construction industry that HSE will not hesitate to prosecute companies for repeated breaches of the law.

“Good management of health and safety on site is crucial to the successful delivery of a construction project and principal contractors have an important role in managing the risks of construction work and ensuring that safety measures are implemented.”