AN Altrincham builder has been sentenced after pleading guilty to a string of health and safety issues at a town-centre site.

Peter Lawrence, of Kingsway, was running the building works to turn the former Ernill Butchers shop in Altrincham into three apartments.

The project involved the full strip out and refurbishment of the ground floor shop and two upper floors. 

A complaint about possible asbestos disturbance on the site was lodged with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and inspectors visited the site to investigate safety concerns.

A number of issues were identified during the visit, including unsafe work at height, unsafe scaffolding, issues relating to asbestos, fire safety failings, unsafe electric supply and a lack of welfare facilities and safety equipment.

Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that some of the issues had been satisfactorily dealt with by Lawrence, who acted as builder and project manager on the refurbishment, but that he failed to comply with two Improvement Notices regarding fire safety on site. 

Lawrence was charged with two counts of failing to comply with an Improvement Notice, one count of failing to provide adequate fire fighting and fire alarm equipment on site and one count of failing to plan, manage and monitor construction work so that it was carried out in a safe manner.

Lawrence pleaded guilty to the offences and was fined £8,000, with £4,802 costs and a victim surcharge of £120.

HSE inspector Matt Greenly said: “Mr Lawrence completely failed in his duty to protect his workers, his subcontractors and visitors to his site from harm.

“Enforcement Notices are served by inspectors where there is serious risk which needs to be better managed; in this case fire safety.  By Mr Lawrence repeatedly ignoring these notices, he has undoubtedly put the lives of his workers and subcontractors at risk from fire, as well as the lives of his neighbours and passers-by. 

“Given the range of serious breaches identified over a very short period of time, and on a relatively small construction project, it is very fortunate that nobody was injured or even killed while working on this site.  I’d therefore like to thank the member of public who initially alerted us to the work, and may well have prevented a serious injury.”