NEWS
LONDON COUNCIL IN COURT AFTER DECADE
OF IGNORING ASBESTOS RISKS
Waltham Forest borough council has been fined after it exposed members of staff and
visiting contractors to the potentially lethal dangers of asbestos, which it knew to be
present in the Town Hall basement.
T
he hazardous material was identified in a survey
commissioned by the council in 2002, yet it failed to take
adequate action to act on the findings and put effective
controls in place. As a result employees and visiting contractors
were allowed to carry on working in the basement regardless of
the dangers for the next ten years.
Westminster Magistrates heard on 30 March that the issue only
became public by chance in mid-2012 when a local resident put in a
request to the council to see some election expenses documentation.
The authority denied the request with the reason that the paperwork
was contaminated with asbestos.
As a result, the resident approached the Health and Safety
Executive’s ‘Mythbuster Challenge Panel’, which in turn referred the
concern to HSE inspectors in north east London to investigate further.
HSE found that the council had a second asbestos survey carried
out in January 2012. This had quickly identified problems of asbestos
in the boiler room and other areas of the basement. The survey also
highlighted that areas identified in the 2002 survey had not been
remedied.
The court heard that Waltham Forest had no plan in place
for managing the well-known risks of asbestos and there was an
inadequate system in place for inspecting asbestos at the Town Hall.
HSE served an Improvement Notice on the council requiring
them to put in place a proper management plan dealing with the
presence of asbestos. Inspectors also interviewed a number of
employees and contractors who had used the basement over the
years, including print-room staff who were based down there.
Waltham Forest Borough Council was fined a total of £66,000
and ordered to pay £16,862 in costs after pleading guilty to two
breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and a
breach of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Chris Tilley said:
“Waltham Forest was aware of the asbestos in the basement
as far back as 1984. It was also aware of the risks from asbestos
exposure and of its duty to manage those risks. However, the
authority singularly failed to do so over more than a decade. Over
that period, an unquantifiable number of its own employees plus
workers from maintenance companies and similar were regularly
exposed to these hazards.
“Asbestos-related disease has a long latency and it is impossible
to ascertain what injury may have been caused in this case. But
asbestos is a known and powerful carcinogen and owners or
managers of non-domestic premises, such as councils, have a
legal duty to manage the material in their buildings and have
measures and controls in place to protect workers and the public
from being exposed.” `
Original Source: http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/london-council-in-court-after-decade-of-ignoring-asbestos-risks/?
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