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Contractor fined for removing Asbestos in an open wheelbarrow

Safe and Secure Removal of Asbestos.

A building contractor and a local authority have been heavily fined after asbestos was removed from a property that was being renovated in an open wheelbarrow.

Workers from the building firm that were carrying out the renovation work had disturbed some asbestos at the property, owned by the local District Council. The company had been called in to convert the properties bathroom into a wet room.

The workers removed asbestos insulation boards from around the bath then carried it through the rest of the flat and the communal areas of the housing complex in an open wheelbarrow before loading it into an open topped van to be taken away from the site.

Get the Asbestos Professionals in.

An amazed and completely shocked asbestos surveyor who was working in the flat above, immediately stopped the job and a licensed asbestos contractor was brought in to decontaminate the whole area and carry out the necessary air clearance tests.

Officers from the Health and Safety Executive told the Magistrates Court that the council had failed to provide any adequate information on asbestos that could be present in the property to the contractors before work began, and that they had failed to ensure that the contractors were in fact competent to carry out work with asbestos.

The three partners in the building firm had failed to prevent the spread of deadly asbestos or to ensure that their employees were properly trained to deal with the asbestos.

Asbestos: The Health and Safety Executive Stance.

After the court hearing, a Health and Safety Executive inspector said: “Contractors need to be aware of the potential for asbestos to be disturbed while carrying out building work and provide their employees with adequate information, instruction and training so they can protect themselves and others from exposure to this lethal material.”

The District Council pleaded guilty to breaching the CDM regulations and was fined a total of £16,600 and ordered to pay costs of £3,486.

The trhee partners in the firm each pleaded guilty to breaching asbestos regulations and were fined a total of £3,003 and ordered to pay costs of £900.

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