Council ordered to pay £150k after wall collapse injures girl

A borough council has been ordered to pay more than £150,000 after a brick boundary wall it part-owned collapsed and seriously injured a six-year-old girl.

The incident took place on 14 August 2016 when a wall spanning the back of two houses in Fleetway, Vange collapsed onto the girl during a family barbecue.

The girl was placed in an induced coma after sustaining serious and life-threatening injuries. She was in intensive care for seven days and in hospital for ten days in total. She has made a good recovery but still suffers some physical and emotional problems.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found Basildon Borough Council failed to take any action after receiving concerns about the wall’s condition from private tenants, two years prior to the incident.

Wider concerns about the poor condition of brick walls in the vicinity, including council-owned walls, were not passed to building control or the council’s inspections teams.

The HSE investigation also found that the council had failed to implement a system of intelligence-led inspection, maintenance and repair, to adequately identify and remedy the risks of collapses to boundary walls, both owned solely by the council, or jointly with private residents.

Basildon Borough Council pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

It was fined £133,333 and ordered to pay costs of £21,419.55.

HSE inspector Tania van Rixtel said: “This was a wholly avoidable incident which could easily have been fatal. If Basildon Borough Council had properly recorded residents’ concerns about the state of the walls, then a suitably qualified individual could have been engaged to identify the level of risk and instigated the required remedial action.

“Despite the low frequency of wall collapses, they are high consequence events requiring those with the responsibility for structural safety to take proactive measures to ensure that boundary walls and other structures are safely maintained.”

A Basildon Council spokesman said: “The council deeply regrets the incident but is pleased the judge recognised its efforts in taking immediate action to considerably reduce the likelihood of such an incident occurring again.

“The judge said it is clear that since the incident the council has taken immediate steps to put in a system that is now suitably robust. He also noted the council’s cooperation in such a complex case and guilty plea at the first available opportunity.

“Since the incident, which occurred at a property not owned by the council but adjacent to a council property, the council has taken numerous steps to increase checks and tighten its own reporting processes. The council has reminded all residents, including those who own their own homes or rent from the council and other landlords, how to check the safety of their walls and to report any concerns.”

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