Building firm admits breaking health and safety laws

Sunday 06 June 2021

A building firm has admitted breaking health and safety laws by using a dangerous scaffold tower that could have caused seriously injury.

T Bidmead Building Contractors appeared in the Royal Court on Friday, where the firm pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to discharge its duty under health and safety legislation.

On 23 November 2020, at 23 Duhamel Place, a scaffold tower was found to have no edge protection on its intermediate platforms, and trap doors on these levels were on the opposite side of the tower to its inbuilt ladder, so that the ladder could not be climbed as designed.

Also, people climbing the exterior of the tower were required to climb over the top guardrails to access the upper platform; workers on this top platform were required to access the roof of the building across a gap; and the tower was not tied to the building appropriately. 

All of these “exposed employees to a risk of serious injury of failing,” according to the charges the firm is facing.

The second count which the firm admits relates to its failure to prevent a fall, in that timber edge protection built around the building’s dormer windows did not provide adequate protection; and the scaffold tower did not extend to protect the working area of the roof.

The company, which was represented by Advocate Estelle Burns with owner Timothy Bidmead present in court, will be sentenced on Friday 2 July.