Company failed to provide sufficient protection for workers
Construction website Housing Excellence is reporting that an Edgware-based construction company and its director have been fined after carrying out unsafe demolition and construction work at a house in Surrey.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Laxmi Developments Ltd and its director, Vijay Madhaparia, of Tavistock Road, Edgware, for failing to comply with a Prohibition Notice (PN), failing to provide adequate safety protection for employees and failing to carry out an asbestos survey on a property before demolition.
Redhill Magistrates’ Court heard that during a visit to a building site at Mellow Close, Banstead, on 23 June 2011, an HSE inspector was confronted with such poor standards, he consequently served a PN and three Improvement Notices on the firm.
The PN was issued as the inspector found workers knocking down the house at first floor level with no edge protection to prevent falls. Though aware of the requirement for scaffolding and edge protection, Madhaparia had instructed workers to go ahead with the demolition without these measures in place.
The three Improvement Notices were served to ensure sufficient demolition planning was carried out, to improve the welfare facilities on the site and to ensure the site supervisor was competent to carry out the works.
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