Waste Company Fined After Unsafe Skip Stockpiling and Poor Site Traffic Control

Brief Summary

The Health and Safety Executive found multiple breaches at a waste and recycling site, including skips stacked up to three high in areas workers accessed and a lack of effective segregation between vehicles and pedestrians. The employer had previously faced enforcement action for stockpiling risks, and the company pleaded guilty to two offences before being fined.

What Was The Incident?

HSE inspectors visited the site and observed vehicles, including tipper lorries and loading shovels, being driven around freely. Pedestrian access was restricted by a chained and padlocked entrance, forcing pedestrians to use the same route as lorries and other vehicles. The site did not provide effective segregation through designated pedestrian routes or crossing points. Although a visual traffic plan existed, it was not visible to staff or visitors and was out of date because the site layout had changed, so it did not address key pedestrian movements such as access across the yard to toilets. Inspectors also found skips stacked unsafely, with some deformed, and with a stack height of three high in places. The stacking created an increased risk of collapse or skips falling, particularly because the area was regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer pleaded guilty to two offences under s33(1)(a). The company was fined £167,000 and ordered to pay £16,195 in costs. HSE enforcement followed the earlier issue of improvement notices requiring action within a specified timescale, and the investigation found prior enforcement action in 2019 including prohibition notices relating to stockpiling and risks of collapse.

Key Points To Consider

Ensure pedestrians and vehicles are genuinely segregated. Do not rely on informal arrangements where people are forced to use vehicle routes; provide clear designated pedestrian routes and crossing points, and make sure segregation works in practice across the whole yard.

Keep traffic plans visible and current. A traffic plan is only useful if staff and visitors can see it and it reflects the current site layout and key pedestrian movements, including access to welfare such as toilets.

Control the risks from stockpiled skips and unstable stacks. Treat skip stockpiling as a collapse and falling object risk, especially where skips are heavy and stacks are at height or include deformed skips that add to instability.

Review arrangements where vehicles reverse and operate. Where large vehicles must reverse, use additional precautions to protect people working nearby and make sure the control measures are actually implemented where the risk occurs.

Use past enforcement as a trigger to improve systems, not repeat failures. Prior prohibition or enforcement action for similar issues should prompt a thorough reassessment of arrangements for stockpiling and site transport safety, with effective changes made within the required timescales.

HSE Prosecution Link