A Tameside gate manufacturer has been fined £10,000 after it ignored a
formal warning about installing guards on two circular saws. Openshaw
Bespoke Timber Gates Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) after it continued to expose its workforce to danger by
operating the saws for one month after being ordered to take them out of
use at its workshop on the Greenside Trading Estate in Droylsden.
Trafford
Magistrates’ Court heard recently (5 December 2014) that two inspectors
had spotted the unprotected saws during an unannounced visit to the
site on 14 April 2014. They issued a Prohibition Notice requiring the
saws not to be used until guards had been fitted. When HSE inspectors
returned to the site a month later, they found the saws still in use and
no attempt had been made by the firm to fit guards.
Openshaw Bespoke
Timber Gates Ltd, of Greenside Lane in Droylsden, was fined £10,000 and
ordered to pay £729 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to
breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to
comply with a Prohibition Notice.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE
Inspector Sarah Taylor said: “When we first visited the factory in
April, we were immediately concerned by two of the saws which were not
guarded and could easily have resulted in an employee losing a finger.
We therefore issued a Prohibition Notice requiring the saws to be taken
out of use but the company failed to take any action until we returned
to the site one month later, despite it being a legal requirement. The
firm has since subcontracted its wood cutting work to an outside firm so
the saws are not needed. If it had done this when we first served the
notice, or fitted guards to the saws, then it would have avoided having
to pay a court fine.”
CRS
says: “It’s careless and ridiculous for a firm to ignore a Prohibition
Notice as this one did. We think the court was quite right to punish it
with a stiff fine. This is a warning that other firms should take note
of.”
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