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

Brief Summary

HSE found multiple serious health and safety failures at a waste and recycling site, including skips piled up to three high in areas where workers regularly accessed the yard, and poor segregation between pedestrians and vehicles. The employer had previously been subject to enforcement action related to skip stockpiling and collapse risk, making the repeat failures a key concern.

What Was The Incident?

During an HSE visit in August 2022, inspectors observed vehicles including tipper lorries and loading shovels being driven around the site, with pedestrians being forced to use the vehicle entrance route. The pedestrian entrance was chained and padlocked, and there were no effective 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 Although a visual traffic plan existed, it was not visible to staff or visitors and was out of date because the site layout had changed, so it did not address key pedestrian movements such as access across the yard to toilets.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. Some skips were deformed, the stack height was up to three high in places, and the increased height and instability raised the likelihood of collapse or falling. The skips were positioned in an area regularly accessed by workers on foot or in vehicles, creating a significant risk of skips falling onto people.

What Was The Outcome?

The employer was prosecuted for failing to meet duties to protect employees, agency workers and other people on site from risk of death or serious personal injury. It pleaded guilty to two offences. The company was fined £167,000 and ordered to pay £16,195 costs. HSE had previously served prohibition notices in 2019 relating to stockpiling and risks of collapse, and improvement notices were issued after the initial visit with a timescale for required actions.

Key Points To Consider

Keep vehicles and pedestrians properly separated. Ensure there are clearly designated pedestrian routes and safe crossing points, rather than forcing pedestrians to share vehicle access routes.

Make traffic management information visible and current. A traffic plan is not enough if it is not visible to staff and visitors or has not been updated to reflect changes in the site layout and pedestrian movements.

Control skip storage to prevent collapse and falling loads. Avoid stacking skips in ways that increase instability, including high stacks and skips that are deformed, and assess collapse risk based on the size and weight of skips.

Use exclusion zones around stored equipment. Do not place skip stacks in areas regularly accessed by workers on foot or by vehicles, since that positioning greatly increases the chance of people being struck if skips fall.

Treat repeated enforcement issues as a serious red flag. Where prior enforcement action has highlighted legal duties and risks, you should review whether controls have been implemented effectively and sustained, not just corrected temporarily.

HSE Prosecution Link