The council was ordered to pay the penalty, as well as legal costs of £14,000 at a hearing at Burnley Magistrates Court last week. The local authority had pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc act 1974 in an earlier hearing in October 2018.
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the case against the council, a labourer employed on behalf of the authority, Dominic Allen, was struck by a large refuse vehicle on 30 October 2015, whilst at work in Nelson, Lancashire.
At the time of the incident, three refuse vehicles were in the immediate vicinity, the HSE said. Mr Allen suffered severe crush injuries which resulted in surgery to remove his lower right leg.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the council had neglected to properly identify the well-known hazards posed by refuse collection operations.
Consequently, the council had failed to devise safe working methods and provide the necessary information and training to their workers to prevent harm arising, HSE claimed.
Risk
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Leona Cameron said: “Pendle borough council did not do enough to protect people from the dangers presented by refuse collection vehicles. If the risks had been properly identified and a suitable system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life-changing injuries sustained by Mr Allen could have been prevented.
“HSE has worked closely with the Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH) which has produced several guidance booklets specific to this industry.”
At the hearing on Thursday 14 February the Court heard mitigation on behalf of the council that it had an excellent health and safety record with no previous incidents of this nature. It also heard that it fully co-operated with the HSE investigation.
Councillor Paul White, leader of Pendle council, said that the council ‘bitterly regretted’ the incident.
He said: “We’ve endeavoured to provide support to our employee throughout this process.
“The health and safety of our staff is something that is very important to me and to the Council and I ensured a review was underway as soon as it was brought to my attention.
“We’ve reviewed all of our training arrangements and risk assessments and complied with the HSE’s recommendations at the earliest opportunity.”
The council said it had recently invited ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) to carry out a full up-to-date and independent review of its waste collection service.
Councillor White added: “The review confirmed that a positive health and safety culture exists with manager, supervisors and worker representatives’ actively involved and supporting health and safety requirements.
“We’re implementing the detailed recommendations of the review and have further increased our staffing resource for dealing with health and safety across the council.”
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