A Staffordshire-based Council has been fined for putting a community’s health in jeopardy after a carbon monoxide leak from a gas boiler at a local community centre, meaning that members of the community could be entitled to claim no win no fee compensation through one of our expert panel of injury lawyers if they’ve been injured or taken ill as a result.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found grounds to prosecute the local authority after members of a bridge club alerted the fire service after discovering what they suspected to be a gas leak at the community centre.
The Magistrates Court heard that upon investigating the problem, fire fighters found exceptionally high levels of carbon monoxide seeping from the flue in the loft and subsequently evacuated the community centre.
Sections of the flue had disintegrated, causing the toxic gas to accumulate and begin to flow through an open hatch into a cupboard just off the centre’s main hall.
After investigating the incident, the HSE discovered that the contract for maintenance and vital annual safety checks of all gas appliances in the 38 properties owned by the council, including nine households, had expired an entire year before the incident.
In addition to failing to carry out gas checks on the appliances in these properties, it was also revealed that the council had not had the Staffordshire community centre’s 30-year-old boiler checked for almost two years before the discovery on 30 March 2009.
The council pleaded guilty on 7 Dec 2011 to violating both Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which states:
"It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks of their health and safety."
It was also found to have breached Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which states:
"Every employer shall make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the nature of his activities and the size of his undertaking, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures."
The council was consequently fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £25,550 in court costs.
HSE inspector, Lynne Boulton, said of the case after the hearing:
"Every year, about 20 people die from carbon monoxide poisoning, invariably due to gas appliances not being properly serviced and checked for safety. Many more become ill with long-term health problems.
"This incident could have had much more serious consequences, particularly as elderly people and children, who are more vulnerable to the effects of this dangerous gas, use the centre regularly.
"All property owners must make sure their gas appliances are checked each year by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
"Organisations such as local authorities, which own a large number of properties, must have robust management systems in place to monitor safety critical contracts.
"It is unacceptable that members of the public were put at risk by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's failure to take proper measures to protect them."
If you think you’ve suffered injury or illness at the hands of an institution’s or employer’s negligence, then you could be entitled to claim no win no fee compensation with one of our panel of expert injury lawyers. You can call us on Freephone 0800 567 7866, or fill in the contact form to the right to request a free, no obligation call back.