Waste Company Fined for Unsafe Skip Stockpiling and Poor Vehicle Pedestrian Control

Brief Summary

HSE found multiple health and safety management failures at a waste and recycling site, including skips piled three high, inadequate segregation of vehicle and pedestrian routes, and a traffic plan that staff and visitors could not use because it was not visible and had become out of date. The company was fined and ordered to pay costs following guilty pleas.

What Was The Incident?

HSE visited the site and observed vehicles and loading equipment moving freely around the yard, including tipper lorries and loading shovels, with pedestrians having to use the same route as lorries. The pedestrian entrance was chained and padlocked and there was no effective segregation through designated pedestrian routes or crossing points. Although a visual traffic plan existed, it was not visible to staff or visitors and did not reflect changes to the site, so it did not address key pedestrian movements such as access across the yard to toilets. HSE also found skips stacked unsafely, with some deformed and a three high stack in places, increasing the risk of collapse or falling. The stacks were located in an area regularly accessed by workers on foot and by vehicles.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer pleaded guilty to two offences and was fined £167,000, with £16,195 ordered in costs. HSE had also previously served prohibition notices in 2019 relating to stockpiling and risks of collapse, and improvement notices required further action within specified timescales after the 2022 visit.

Key Points To Consider

Provide effective vehicle and pedestrian segregation. Do not rely on informal movement around the yard. Use designated pedestrian routes and crossing points so people are not forced to share routes with moving vehicles, especially where heavy vehicles and reversing are involved.

Keep traffic management plans visible and current. A traffic plan must be usable in practice. Ensure it is visible to staff and visitors and updated when the site layout changes so it reflects current pedestrian movements and routes.

Control stockpiling to prevent collapse and falling objects. Avoid stacking skips in a way that increases instability. Where skips are deformed or stacked at height, treat this as a heightened collapse risk and keep them out of areas regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles.

Act promptly on enforcement history and improvement requirements. Where previous enforcement action has highlighted legal duties, use this as a prompt to improve management systems rather than assuming the same approach will be acceptable after changes to the site.

Ensure risks are managed for all people on site. Consider the safety of employees, agency workers and other persons. Organise the workplace so that people can circulate safely around vehicles and plant, and implement additional precautions where reversing and large vehicles create greater risk.

HSE Prosecution Link