Lancashire firm fined £6,000 for poor security and traffic management

Magistrates have fined a Lancashire construction company £6,000 for failing to act on warnings about poor security and traffic management.

Chelford Properties of Balmoral House, Ackhurst Business Park, Foxholes Road, Chorley, was also ordered to pay £4,500 costs.

The court heard that the prosecutions related to a residential construction site at Warbreck Gardens, Blackpool, where local residents complained about the poor state a boundary fence and children getting onto the site.

The HSE visited the site in February 2007 and found that the fence was dilapidated and that there was inadequate traffic management, putting people walking around the site in danger of being hit by construction vehicles.

The HSE served two improvement notices to make the boundary fence safe and improve arrangements for controlling vehicle and pedestrian movements.

Chelford had previously been served with four improvement notices for similar failings on other sites.

The company pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations and the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations at Blackpool Magistrates Court.

HSE inspector Alasdair Green said: "This is a company that has repeatedly put the safety of both the public and its own workforce at risk by not securing sites and by failing to manage pedestrian and vehicle movements."