Waste Company Fined After Unsafe Skip Stockpiling and Weak Vehicle Pedestrian Control

Brief Summary

A waste and recycling employer was prosecuted after HSE found multiple health and safety failures at a site, including poor separation between pedestrians and vehicles and skips stacked in a way that created a potentially catastrophic risk of collapse. The case highlights how traffic management plans must be current, communicated, and supported by physical arrangements and segregation.

What Was The Incident?

On 11 August 2022, HSE inspectors visited an employer site where vehicles and loading equipment were driven around the yard. Pedestrian access was not properly separated from vehicle movements, with the pedestrian entrance chained and padlocked so pedestrians had to use the vehicle route. There were no effective designated pedestrian routes or crossing points. Although a visual traffic plan was present, it was not visible to staff or visitors and it was out of date because the site layout had changed, so it did not address key pedestrian movements such as access across the yard to toilets. HSE also found skips stacked unsafely. Some skips were deformed, the stack was three high in places, and this increased the likelihood of collapse or falling. The stacks were in an area regularly accessed by workers, on foot or by vehicles, placing people at great risk if skips fell. After improvement notices were served, HSE made a further visit 11 days later and later found the employer had been subject to prior enforcement, including prohibition notices in 2019 related to stockpiling and risks of collapse.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer pleaded guilty to two offences under s33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £167,000 and ordered to pay £16,195 in costs. HSE improvement notices were issued with required actions within specified timescales, and the prosecution followed investigation into continued and previously identified failures.

Key Points To Consider

Physically separate pedestrians and vehicles. Ensure pedestrians have designated routes and crossing points so they do not have to use vehicle routes, and provide effective segregation throughout the work area.

Keep traffic plans current and visible. A traffic plan must reflect current site layout and pedestrian movements, and it must be visible and understood by staff and visitors, not kept as an outdated document.

Control reversal and mixed movement risks. Where vehicles and large equipment move around the yard, include additional precautions where reversing and vehicle movement create risk to those working nearby.

Manage storage stability for heavy equipment. For items such as skips, stacking arrangements must prevent collapse, take account of deformation or instability, and avoid locating stockpiles where people regularly pass close by on foot or in vehicles.

Use enforcement history to drive sustained compliance. Prior enforcement should trigger immediate review and corrective action, because repeating the same type of failure can lead to prosecution even after improvement notices are served.

HSE Prosecution Link