Total Controlled responds to online criticism.
At the end of last week, DemolitionNews carried a story that highlighted issues reported on a demolition site in Fleetwood. The contractor involved – Total Controlled Demolition – has today responded with a statement that sets out their position on a project that has been the subject of considerable online criticism. DemolitionNews happily reproduces that statement in full, below:
“…We would like to update the relevant media sources with a true and fair reflection of the event that occurred at Marine View, Fleetwood, FY7.
We have been commissioned to conduct the demolition of the former Marine View, Fleetwood, which we understand is an iconic building which has stood the test of time and has seen many local people living and/or working at Marine View, Fleetwood and clearly has deep roots with the community.
We have certainly been tested whilst conducting the demolition works on site with limited space for equipment and storm Ciara which has battered the site with high winds and rain, to which we have unfortunately had to stop work on site numerous times due to the high winds.
Following the news report, we would like to confirm the following:
• The HSE had not stopped works on site, works were stopped by TOTAL to enable all parties concerned to discuss and review the situation and speak with the residents.
• We had reached out to the HSE and issued the required information and paperwork.
• No Prohibition Notice has been served.
• No Accidents were caused.
During all demolition works we have been using our demolition equipment such as selector grabs and multi-processing shears to enable safe deconstruction and using on site water suppression.
The building is 37-foot-high at pavement level and whilst processing materials on site, building a small platform with the material and including the attachments the machine is capable of reaching the desired height to safely deconstruct the building, along with other techniques adopted such as MEWP and Scaffolding Works which are contained within the Safe System of Work.
On the other side of the building we have installed protection scaffolding with the required lifts to deconstruct the building safely by hand demolition techniques as the neighbouring property is within a very close proximity 3 foot approx.
The event that was captured on video was from a local resident who is passionate about the building and surrounding community, we had just demolished a section of the building successfully with no debris falling outside of the fence line/boundary.
At this point late in the working day, there was some loose terracotta blocks left hanging at an unsafe height along with some window panes which looked unsafe and dangerous, our site team assessed the risk and since it would take a couple of hours to process the demolition material in front of the machine and the fact that Storm Ciara was closing in fairly fast, it was decided at this point to extend the site boundary and form a temporary closure to the road with banksmen and signage installed on both sides to prevent unauthorised access. Due to the camera angle of the video, you cannot see the extended fence line with the banksmen operating at specific points preventing access.
We proceeded to conduct an emergency system of work which is not our standard demolition practice, but due to the current circumstances with serious weather warnings and the potential of debris falling at a great height outside of our working hours on site, it was decided to remove the ultimate risk whilst we were present.
The site team anticipated the debris falling and of which the operation was conducted within approximately 2 minutes. The terracotta block dropped and hit the wall splitting into 2 sections with some minor debris associated which were immediately swept and removed and the fence line re-installed, with the potentially fatal risk removed.
Should the site team have had sufficient space to continue works and time to process the materials already demolished, we would have continued in the same manner we had done previously with no issues or concerns.
The resident who captured the video has been since spoken with and unfortunately doesn’t want the building to be demolished and not knowing the industry that we work in, has mistaken rockwool insulation as asbestos materials – we have since made contact with various residents to alleviate all concerns and offered an open-door policy to any and all information relating to our works including the asbestos removal information confirming removal was complete prior to demolition.
Whilst we appreciate that the video doesn’t show flattering deconstruction technique being adopted, but at that moment in time it was decided to remove a potentially fatal incident occurring outside of working hours.
Traditionally we would conduct an extensive letter drop and attend local meetings with residents, but we were advised that others would be conducting this as our client has a public liaison officer.
W
e do pride ourselves on our work and remain as competitive as possible whilst retaining a very good standard of workmanship as do others in the industry, we do remain frustrated by the incident we respect that anyone is allowed to have an opinion of any story but wish for the facts to be presented which will offer a true reflection of the site and event that occurred.
Whilst writing this statement, we can confirm that the HSE have attended the site and have left site with no issues with ourselves, to which no notices have been served…”
