£10,000 legal bill for housing company over asbestos failings

A COUNCIL-owned housing company must pay a legal bill of more than £10,000 after it admitted failings which led to a plumber being exposed to dangerous asbestos dust.

Rotherham Magistrates Court heard that 2010 Rotherham, a company set up to manage council homes, had not passed information about the risk to their contractor who was fitting a new bathroom. As a result, he was exposed to a massive amount of asbestos while carrying out his work, breathing in levels 50 times higher than those laid down in health and safety legislation.

The court was told the company, a not-for-profit firm wholly owned by Rotherham Council, had been warned three times about its procedures for dealing with asbestos.

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Health and Safety Executive inspector David Bradley said enforcement notices and warnings had been issued in 2005, 2006 and 2007, after a series of concerns had been raised.

Despite this, in September 2008, the plumber from Barnsley-based sub-contractor NuGas, was sent to the flat in Orchard Place, Rotherham and began removing what he thought was plasterboard.

Mr Bradley said: "He was working in significant amounts of asbestos dust and debris and was not wearing any protective clothing. He was also subject to high exposures as he swept up."

The court heard he became concerned when he noticed that holes he had cut for pipework in the bathroom had ragged fibres around the edges. Employees from a specialist asbestos removal firm were working in the flat next door and immediately identified he had been at risk.

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The plumber was not identified, but Rhian Gilligan, representing 2010 Rotherham, said the effects on his health had been "mercifully" brief. She added the company accepted its systems had failed and told the court directors wanted to make a clear "expression of regret" over what had happened.

District Judge John Foster ordered the firm to pay a fine of 7,000, Health and Safety Executive legal costs of 3,418.60 and a 15 victim surcharge.