Waste Company Fined for Dangerous Skip Stockpiling and Poor Traffic Segregation

Brief Summary

HSE found multiple health and safety failures at a waste and recycling site, including lack of safe separation between pedestrians and vehicles and skips piled up to three high in areas regularly used by staff. The employer was fined and ordered to pay costs after pleading guilty to offences.

What Was The Incident?

During an HSE visit in August 2022, inspectors found that tipper lorries and loading vehicles were driven around the site without effective segregation from pedestrians. The pedestrian entrance was chained and padlocked, forcing pedestrians to use the same route as vehicles, with no designated pedestrian routes or crossing points. Although a traffic plan existed, it was not visible to staff or visitors and was out of date after site layout changes, including failing to address pedestrian movement to toilets. Inspectors also found skips unsafely stacked, with some deformed, increasing instability. In places the skips were stacked three high, raising the likelihood of collapse or a falling load. The skips were located in an area regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer pleaded guilty to two offences under section 33(1)(a). It was fined £167,000 and ordered to pay £16,195 in costs. HSE also previously served prohibition notices in 2019 related to stockpiling and collapse risks, and further enforcement action followed the later visit through improvement notices requiring remediation within a specified timescale.

Key Points To Consider

Separate pedestrians and vehicles effectively. Ensure pedestrians have safe designated routes and crossings that do not force them to use vehicle routes, and review site layouts so separation is real and maintained in practice.

Keep traffic management plans current and communicated. If a traffic plan exists, it must be visible to staff and visitors and updated when the site configuration changes, including routes used by pedestrians for common destinations.

Control skip stacking risks by design and supervision. Treat skip stockpiling as a collapse hazard and manage risks through safe stacking arrangements, taking account of size, weight, and condition such as deformation that can increase instability.

Avoid placing collapse hazards where people routinely pass. Do not store unstable loads in areas regularly accessed by workers on foot or by vehicles; plan storage locations to keep people away from areas where falls or collapses could occur.

Act on previous enforcement and improvement notices. Where enforcement has previously identified similar duties and risks, demonstrate sustained compliance and complete required actions within set timescales rather than relying on existing arrangements.

HSE Prosecution Link