Councils must ensure sights are safe
Councils must ensure sites are safe
Construction union UCATT has urged councils to improve safety on major construction and regeneration schemes, following a spate of deaths late last year at a site in Camden, London. Scaffolder Ralph 'Barney' Kennedy was electrocuted by a live wire while working on the Mayford estate in September 2006 (Risks 285). It was earlier reported that two other workers were also electrocuted on the same premises. The union points to a lack of safety on major regeneration projects run by local authorities. It says while the work is not carried out directly by the council, local authorities have a 'moral duty' to ensure the correct safety standards. Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: 'This tragedy underlines once again that if corners are cut on construction sites then it is all too common for deaths and serious injuries to occur. Councils must ensure that their safety provisions are beyond reproach. They cannot simply wash their hands of their responsibilities and blame others for their failings.' Tony O'Brien, secretary of the Construction Safety Campaign, which joined family members outside a St Pancras Magistrate's Court inquest this week into Barney Kennedy's death, which returned an open verdict on 17 April, said: 'This was another preventable tragedy. Sadly Barney's death is another statistic in the year where we see a massive 30 per cent increase in the numbers of construction workers killed at work - up from 59 to 78.' He added: 'This will not change until the government reverses it's deregulatory programme and puts much more resources into the enforcement of our safety laws; implements corporate manslaughter laws that will actually jail negligent employers; allows more councils to do this kind of work in-house and gives workers stronger rights to defend themselves against the worst excesses of the penny pinching employers. The government currently plans to do none of this.'
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