03 Apr 2012
The owner of a company which manufactures pallets allowed fires to be lit at his site, which neighbours a gas storage premises, a court heard.
George Ward was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after he took no notice of warnings about blazes at Brampton Pallets, which is next to a pair of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage areas.
Ward was issued with a Prohibition Notice in December 2007 by the HSE, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court was told, which stopped him from allowing wood fires to be started in an open metal drum at the Willowholme Industrial Estate site.
In April 2009, following another complaint about fires at the site, he signed a letter from HSE which dictated how fires should be lit and controlled at the firm.
But in 2011, another complaint was made and when HSE inspectors paid the site a visit in March, they saw a fire which was not suitably controlled.
George Ward, of Rockcliffe in Carlisle, admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, by failing to make sure that the safety of people was not put at risk.
He must pay a £10,000 fine and £3,687 in costs.
Copyright Press Association 2012