County council faces £100k bill after three separate health and safety incidents

A county council has been ordered to pay almost £100,000 in fines and costs after it admitted breaching health and safety laws at three separate workplaces, including two schools.

An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive led to six charges being brought against Suffolk County Council at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court.

The investigation followed incidents at Burton End Primary School in Haverhill, Farlingaye High School in Woodbridge, and the council’s highways department.

These saw:

• A nine-year-old pupil at Burton End fracture his skull in October 2009 after he fell more than 1.5 metres from a climbing frame on the school grounds onto concrete slabs below. The HSE found that Suffolk had ignored a requirement for an impact absorbing surface under the climbing frame and had failed to provide the school with sufficient information for children to play safely.
• An IT technician shatter his arm after he fell four metres from a temporary aluminium platform (known as a tallescope), which was being pushed along while he was on top of it. The individual had been taking down a screen at the back of a stage after a theatre production at Farlingaye High School in October 2009. He was off work for five months. The HSE investigation concluded that Suffolk had failed to provide adequate training for employees and had failed to monitor working at height in schools.
• Four road worker employees in the highways department develop the hand arm vibration syndrome. Suffolk admitted failing to properly assess the risk from working with vibrating machinery and exposing its workers to harm.

Magistrates fined the council a total of £48,000 and ordered it to pay costs totalling £43,772.

The fines consisted of:

• £14,000 for breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Burton End
• £14,000 for breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Farlingaye High
• £14,000 for breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Farlingaye High
• A further £6,000 for two breaches of the Control of Vibration of Work regulations.

HSE Inspector Julie Rayner said: "It is very disappointing to see a major employer like the county council repeatedly fall short of its legal obligations to protect its workers and pupils.

"These cases show the need for all organisations to ensure that they understand the risks in their business and take sufficient steps to manage and monitor them.”