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Builder prosecuted after failing to provide adequate welfare facilities
Bryan Ellis Brown, a partner in Bryan Brown & Son, of Bridlington has been fined for providing below par welfare facilities on a small site in July 2009.
Magistrates heard that a toilet unit was not plumbed in, and there was no water supplied to sinks in a cabin or adjacent toilet compartment at the construction site for a pair of cottages.
Prosecution follows failure to comply with improvement notice
Inspection by HSE at an earlier time led to service of an Improvement Notice on Mr Brown as the Principal Contractor requiring the provision of suitable toilet and washing facilities.
On a subsequent site visit it was found that the requirements of the Improvement Notice had not been complied with. A sewage outlet had been provided to the toilet, but there was no water supply to the unit. Neither was there any water available at the sinks in the cabin or the adjacent toilet compartment, and no soap or towels were available.
A further site visit on 17 September 2009 found though a water supply had been provided to the toilet unit, and soap and towels had been provided still no running water was provided to the sink units in the cabin or the toilet compartment.
Mr Brown was fined £2k and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,215 after he pleaded guilty to two health and safety breaches.
All firms must meet basic welfare requirements
After the hearing HSE Inspector Geoff Clark reminded firms they have an obligation to provide basic facilities on site. He said:
“By failing to provide adequate welfare facilities on site, Bryan Ellis Brown subjected his employees to an unhygienic and potentially unsafe working environment. Having access to suitable welfare facilities is a basic human right for anyone engaged in any form of work, and to not provide those facilities is totally unacceptable.”
Standards required (HSE)