Suspended prison sentence for March skip man and £47,000 to pay

Skip operator Israr Ahmed was arrested after he failed to take advice from the Environment Agency and ran his business illegally.

He had been operating Dial a Skip for more than a year, undercutting competitors. Ahmed, aged 29, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to running an illegal waste site and failing to produce waste transfer notes, was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months for running the site. He was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work in the community. A £30,000 confiscation order was made against him with a 9 month prison sentence in default and he was ordered to pay £17,000 full costs and £100 victim surcharge.

Illegal skip business attracted rats

Peterborugh Crown Court heard he rented a unit at Gaul Farm Industrial Estate in March and dumped waste there and in another unit on the same site, rented by his wife, as well as several outside areas around the site. The waste on the site rotted and became rat-infested causing concerns to people living nearby. Mrs Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting, said Ahmed knew he needed a permit to operate the site as a waste dump or sorting station and had been advised by environment officers.
He was being paid to take waste and was depositing and treating it illegally on the site. She said Ahmed would have had to make major changes to the site before a permit could have been granted so had saved money by not doing that. He would also have had to consider health and safety and the potential impact on the environment. Environment Agency surveillance caught Ahmed supervising waste being tipped at the back of the site and then sorting it, actions he later tried to deny.
He was twice served a notice to produce waste transfer notes but failed to do so and later withdrew a waste permit application he had submitted.  Mrs McDonald told the court that Ahmed had advertised his business on Ebay even though he had told an environment officer that he would not be selling it. In it he claimed to run 25 skips a week.
Mr Andrew Thomas QC told the court Ahmed was naive and did not completely ignore the advice of the Environment Agency.
Judge Sean Enright said the waste site was an eyesore and a health hazard resulting in large rats. He said Ahmed misled the Environment Agency even in a taped interview. Ahmed was undercutting his competitors and the offence was committed for financial gain. He said the custody threshold had been crossed but custody could be suspended because he had been naive.
After the hearing Environment Agency officer Emma Viner said:
‘Whilst seeming to be co-operative Ahmed repeatedly lied to us including in the interview under caution. When a business operates without a permit, it is able to undercut its permitted competitors and can result in more people operating illegally to compete. Waste crime puts people and the environment at risk and we are taking tough action to deal with criminal behaviour.’
Corporate Risk Systems’ Head of Environment, Richard Ball commented – Waste crime is rife so business need to understand their legal duty of care for waste, and ensure they have competent staff to monitor who is taking the organisation’s waste and where is it going’

Campaigners hail air pollution court victory

The UK government could finally be forced to act on air pollution after campaigners won a landmark case at the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ).
Lawyers at NGO ClientEarth brought the case against Defra over its failure to meet limits for pollutants under the air quality directive by the 1 January 2010 deadline. In that year, limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were exceeded in the UK in 40 of the 43 zones set up to meet the directive.  Defra received an extension from the commission to the original deadline for 24 of the 40 zones. That extension ends on 1 January 2015. Under its current air quality plan, London, Birmingham and Leeds will breach the NO2 levels set by the directive until beyond 2030.
ClientEarth asked the British courts to require the UK government to show how the NO2 limits would be met as soon as possible, but by 1 January 2015 at the latest. The Supreme Court passed the case to the ECJ, asking it to clarify if a member state was obliged to apply for a postponement of the deadline if limits for pollutants were not met in time. It also wanted direction on whether the fact that Defra had drawn up an air quality plan was enough to comply with the directive, and if not, what measures the national court should take.
The ECJ has ruled that the UK Supreme Court must require Defra to produce a meaningful plan to ensure that NO2 limits are met as soon as possible, and that producing a plan is not enough in itself to satisfy the directive. Postponement of the deadline is only acceptable where “acute compliance problems exist”, the ruling states.
Alan Andrews, a lawyer at ClientEarth , commented: “This ruling will force the government to finally take this issue seriously and come up with an urgent plan to rid our towns and cities of cancer-causing diesel fumes.”
Simon Birkett, director of campaign group Clean Air in London, hailed the ruling as “a landmark environmental case that could be the most important in a generation..
“Clean Air in London urges the government and the London mayor to ban diesel exhaust from the most-polluted places as coal was banned successfully 60 years ago.  This is the most important action needed to protect public health and comply with NO2 limit values,” he said. The case will now return to the UK Supreme Court early next year for a final ruling.
Campaigners are hoping the government will now be forced to implement measures, such as restricting traffic on certain roads to allow only essential vehicles; bringing forward the London ultra-low emission zone by 2018 rather than the current plan of 2020; investing more in public transport, walking and cycling; and providing the public with better information on air pollution. The commission could now send the UK a final written warning for breaching NO² limits. This would be the second in a five step process, which could result in unlimited and daily fines, estimated to be £300 million per year per pollutant.
The ECJ ruling was the first on the 2008 air quality directive. Other countries infringing standards on PM10 particulate matter include Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy; while NO2 standards are not being met in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic and Spain, among others, according to NGO the European Environmental Bureau. Andrew said: “This sets a groundbreaking legal precedent in EU law and paves the way for a series of legal challenges across Europe. ClientEarth will spearhead these efforts to help people defend their right to clean air in court.”
The ruling comes as the European commission is discussing whether to withdraw the air quality package proposed by the previous commission. This would tighten national targets for air pollutants.Data published today by the European Environment Agency in its annual air quality monitoring report shows that air pollution remains the main environmental health hazard in Europe, causing an estimated 400,000 premature deaths in Europe in 2011.  The pollutant that increased the most over the last decade was benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), the EEA found. Airborne concentrations of BaP increased by more than a fifth between 2003 and 2012 due to urban use of woodstoves and biomass heating, it said.
Source: Environmentalist

Forty per cent of construction sites fail basic health and safety spot-checks

Corporate Risk Systems Limited (CRS) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are urging the construction industry to ensure basic health and safety measures are in place after a month long inspection initiative found 40 per cent of sites failing to properly protect workers. Unacceptable conditions and dangerous practices were found at nearly half of the 1,748 repair and refurbishment sites visited by HSE inspectors, with 1 in 5 sites so poor, formal enforcement action was required. Many of the issues found could have been easily prevented with simple, straightforward management and planning.
The focus of the initiative was on health risks and 35 per cent of the notices served were for issues such as management of asbestos, failure to control exposure to harmful dusts, noise and vibration, and insufficient welfare. However failure to provide basic safety measures for people working at height was once again the most common issue found by Inspectors with 42 per cent of all enforcement notices served for this activity.
HSE’s Chief of Construction Philip White said: “These results show that whilst the majority of employers in the refurbishment sector are getting it right, a significant part of the industry is seriously failing its workers. The inability to properly plan working at height continues to be a major issue, despite well-known safety measures being straightforward to implement.  It is just not acceptable that Inspectors had to order work to stop immediately on over 200 occasions because of dangerous practices. We also find health is often overlooked as its implications are not immediately visible, however the effects of uncontrolled exposure to deadly dusts such as asbestos and silica can be irreversible. We urge industry to ensure the most basic of measures such as use of protective equipment and dust suppression methods are put in place to help protect the future health of workers. We need to continue to educate industry through initiatives like this and encourage a change in behaviour on small projects where over half the industry’s fatal accidents still occur and many workers become seriously ill.”
Philip Bailey, HSE Construction Consultant with CRS said: “We urge construction companies large and small to take advice on health and safety.  Is there a need? – Certainly given the findings of these 1700 inspections.  Health and safety – despite all the myths – is not onerous or difficult.  Our specialist advisers can provide organisations with a healthcheck-type of review that will give peace-of-mind as well as prioritising any essential actions.  Thereafter, our SafetyShare service which provides as little or as much of a health and safety professional’s time as needed, can provide on-going support to make sure that good standards are maintained.  High value for one low-cost fee. It is much cheaper and effective than employing a safety officer.” Contact Philip at 01283 509175 or advice@crsrisk.com

Firm fined over building collapse scare in Harrow

A Harrow-based building firm has appeared in court after a botched demolition sent masonry crashing into the kitchen of a neighbouring property, narrowly missing an occupant who had just left the room.

Axis Build Ltd, of Drummond Drive, Stanmore, was  sentenced for safety failings following the part collapse of a home it was demolishing in Adelaide Close, Stanmore, on 6 June 2013.

Westminster Magistrates were told that debris, including large slabs of brickwork from an end wall, fell on top of the next door property because the firm had failed to properly plan the demolition job to prevent part of the building collapsing in an uncontrolled manner.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the incident could have easily been avoided had Axis Build Ltd used competent people, such as a structural engineer, in the planning process.

The court heard although there had been no injuries, an occupant of the neighbouring house had been in the kitchen only moments before masonry had crashed through a skylight.

Axis Build Ltd, registered in Chesham, Bucks, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £1,338 in costs after admitting breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations by failing to plan the demolition in such a way as to avoid danger, or reduce it to as low a level as possible.

NEBOSH National Certificate in Construction Health & Safety visit our website for more on CDM management courses www.crsrisk.com

Team CRS and driver Caroline first in class at Silverstone

Sunday 2^nd November saw 29 intrepid Lady racers head to Silverstone , the Home of Motorsport, to take part in ‘Race for a Record’ where the BWRDC (British Women’s Racing Drivers Club) aimed to have the largest number of female competitors on track in one race. It was a handicapped race so no matter how powerful the car was anyone could win.
The ladies were first out on track and it was a grey and wet morning that greeted them. Qualifying complete and Caroline was 23^rd out the 29 cars on lap pace. The handicapper had to quickly work out the race start positions and handicap. Initially they missed Caroline off the grip…opps!! With her quickly added on she was in drop 3 which had a 20 second delayed start but with a 2 lap head start, the Lamborghini had a minus 4 lap start plus 50 seconds so Caroline was effectively starting 6 laps ahead of it!!
There were 4 cars in Caroline’s drop and she soon managed to pass 2 of them, the Ford  Puma being too fast for her. She settled down into a rhythm and put in steady laps for the tricky and changing conditions. Caroline overtook some of the slower cars and was herself overtaken by some of the faster cars. The conditions were that bad that the amount of spray being thrown up made it difficult at times to even see where the track went and unknown to Caroline she was actually leading the race!!
The race went to the full 20 laps which was nearly 30 minutes race time and Caroline was beginning to worry about running out of fuel due to the small tank the mini runs. Thankfully she came round Woodcote for the final time to see the checked flag. As they pulled into the pit lane after the cool down lap the marshal’s signalled Caroline over at the top of the lane, she thought it was a mistake and they wanted the car behind but it turned out she’d finished in third place J
The group of ladies managed to break the British record despite the horrendous weather conditions. Team CRS driver Caroline Gilbert, in her Super Mighty Mini managed to take third place overall, and first in class, only being beaten by a Clio and an Alfa having lead until lap 18 of 20 in the race.
 It was an interesting array of machinery from historic cars to modern saloons and even a supercar that took part showing the diversity of racing the ladies competed in. The BWRDC are aiming to break their own record again next year, here’s hoping the classic Mini can triumph again over the faster cars and take another podium finish

Hollywood stuntman discusses the evolution of health and safety in film making

An interesting story narrated by TV and movie stuntman Steve Truglia.  In his day job, Steve flips cars, walks through fire and falls out of buildings.  The movie business constantly pushes technology to make stunts bigger, safer, more awesome.

Steve then talks us through his next stunt: the highest jump ever attempted, from the very edge of space - a place where no aircraft could fly. http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_truglia_a_leap_from_the_edge_of_space