A metal gate manufacturer based in Lea Bridge Road was ordered to pay up after repeatedly failing health and safety inspections, reports Marco Marcelline
A Leyton metal gate manufacturing company has been fined £80,000 for repeated health and safety violations.
Research and Development in Opening Gates Limited, in Lea Bridge Road, pleaded guilty to breaching two sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The court action followed several visits by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to the company’s Grantham, Lincolnshire work site.
In a sentence handed down at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on 12th June, the company was fined £40,000 for each offence, totalling £80,000. It was also ordered to pay £7,495.72 in costs, along with a £2,000 victim surcharge.
During their visits, HSE inspectors identified “serious safety breaches”, including unsafe equipment, inadequate control of welding fumes, and poor structural integrity in workplace areas accessed by employees and visitors.
Three improvement notices were served following the first HSE inspection, but follow-up inspections revealed continued non-compliance.
These included unsafe storage of flammable gases, and unsecured structures that were visibly bowing and posing a serious risk of personal injury should they collapse.
Two further notification of contravention letters were sent to the company, and compliance deadlines were extended but not met on two occasions, according to HSE.
Reacting to the ruling, HSE said: “The company’s failings put employees, contractors and visitors at risk of serious harm. Reasonably practicable measures could have been taken to control these risks, but the company failed to do so.”
HSE inspector Muir Finlay said: “This prosecution follows a catalogue of failures, all of which posed serious risks to both the health and safety of workers and visitors of the site.
“The company failed to implement basic, well-understood measures to control risks. Health and safety must be effectively managed — it’s not optional.”
Research and Development in Opening Gates was contacted for comment.
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