Client, principal contractor and demolition contractor fined for building collapse
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service v Taylor Grange Developments Ltd, Allied Contracts Ltd and Altan Plant Hire (2018) Paisley Sheriff Court, April 27
Statutory reference: regulations 4, 13,15 and 20 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM).
Three companies have been fined after a building collapsed.
The facts
Taylor Grange Developments Ltd was the client for the demolition of the Kilmacol Institute, Inverclyde in 2015.
The company engaged Allied Contracts to act as principal contractor. Altan Plant Hire was subcontracted to carry out the demolition work.
In June 2015 workers with no demolition training were inside the building, hand demolishing internal walls. A wall and ceiling collapsed onto Richard O’Hagan. He suffered multiple fractures.
Taylor Grange had failed to make suitable arrangements for managing the project, failed to make suitable arrangements for demolition work to be carried out without risks and failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the principal contractor complied with its legal duties.
Allied Contracts, as principal contractor, failed to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase to ensure that demolition work was carried out without risk to health and safety. It failed to appoint a demolition contractor with the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability to carry out the work safely and failed to regularly check standards of health and safety on site.
Altan Plant Hire failed to plan the demolition work safely and failed to take into account risks to workers from structural collapse. It failed to provide a safe system of work in that it chose to use hand demolition methods rather than remote demolition by machine, failed to ensure isolation of the electrical system, failed to plan risk for the safe removal of asbestos sheets and failed to provide edge protection around holes in floors.
The decision
Taylor Grange Developments Ltd was fined £4500 under regulation 4 of CDM.
Allied Contracts Ltd was fined £6000 for a breach of regulation 13 of CDM.
Altan Plant Hire was fined £20,000 under regulations 15 and 20 of CDM.
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