Waste Company Fined After Unsafe Skip Stockpiling and Vehicle Pedestrian Risks

Brief Summary

HSE found multiple health and safety failures at a waste and recycling site, including inadequate pedestrian arrangements and skips stacked three high in areas used by workers, creating a potentially catastrophic collapse risk. The employer had previously been subject to enforcement action, but improvements were not sustained.

What Was The Incident?

During an HSE visit in August 2022, inspectors observed vehicles including tipper lorries and loading shovels moving freely around the site. Pedestrian access was poorly controlled because the pedestrian entrance was chained and padlocked, forcing pedestrians to use the vehicle route. There was no effective segregation through designated pedestrian routes or crossing points, despite HSE guidance that workplaces must organise safe circulation of pedestrians and vehicles. A traffic plan existed but was not visible to staff or visitors and was out of date because the site layout had changed, including pedestrian access to toilets. Inspectors also found skips stacked unsafely, with some deformed, making the piles unstable. In places the skips were stacked three high, increasing the likelihood of collapse or items falling. The skips were located in an area regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles, increasing the risk that workers would be struck or harmed by a collapse.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer pleaded guilty to two offences under section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. It was fined £167,000 and ordered to pay £16,195 in costs. Improvement notices required action within specified timescales, and HSE also identified that the business had previously received prohibition notices in 2019 about stockpiling and risks of collapse.

Key Points To Consider

Safeguard pedestrians and vehicles as one system. Ensure pedestrians have their own safe routes with clear segregation and crossing arrangements, rather than forcing them to share routes with reversing or moving vehicles.

Keep site traffic controls visible and current. A visual traffic plan must be visible to staff and visitors and updated when site layout changes, including pedestrian movements such as access to welfare facilities.

Control skip storage to prevent collapse. Do not stack skips in a way that creates instability, including checking for deformation and limiting stacking height where needed to manage collapse and falling object risks.

Avoid placing dangerous storage where people regularly pass. Do not store potentially unstable waste containers in areas regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles, as this increases the consequence of any failure.

Respond quickly and effectively to enforcement history. Where previous enforcement action has been taken, treat it as a warning that legal duties must be maintained through effective corrective actions and sustained control measures.

HSE Prosecution Link