A Hampshire building firm has been prosecuted, after a country club in Darlington was forced to close over fears that asbestos had been exposed during refurbishment work.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the Nationwide Building Contractors Limited for work carried out at the Hall Garth Hotel Golf and Country Club at Coatham Mundeville near Darlington between 7 January and 6 March, 2008.

When HSE inspectors visited the site, they found that work was carried out without adequate checks for asbestos or asbestos-containing materials and served a Prohibition Notice immediately stopping construction work.

Further investigations found large amounts of asbestos pipe lagging in walls and floor voids, where work had been carried out.

The HSE worked with local environmental health officers and the hotel management to make sure that asbestos fibres had not spread to the occupied areas of the hotel. The hotel was voluntarily closed while tests were carried out in the public areas – these proved to be negative for asbestos fibres.

On Thursday (22/04/10) at Darlington Magistrates' Court, Nationwide Building Contractors Limited – registered at 1640 Parkway, Solent Business Park in Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire – was fined a total of £4.500 after being found guilty in its absence of breaching Regulations 5, 11 and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

The company is now in liquidation.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Victoria Wise said that construction and maintenance workers were the most at-risk groups for asbestos-related diseases, ‘due to the nature of their work’.

‘The widespread occurrence of asbestos as a product in buildings constructed or refurbished prior to 2000 means that inadvertent disturbance of asbestos-containing materials can be frequent and regular, where asbestos products have not been adequately identified or managed,’ said Ms Wise.

‘Nationwide Building Contractors could have prevented this risk and should have ensured that the asbestos-containing materials in the work areas had been identified; and, where necessary, removed – then the information passed on to those who were liable to disturb the fabric of the building.

‘This prosecution should act as a reminder to those in the construction industry – and those in control of the repair and maintenance of buildings – of the importance of ensuring that a suitable and sufficient assessment for asbestos has been carried out; and that the correct control measures are in place to ensure that exposure to asbestos is prevented, so far as is reasonably practicable,’ she added.

The HSE says that asbestos products have been ‘widely used’ in the UK since the end of the 19th century – and were used in the construction and refurbishment of buildings until 1999. 

Asbestos can cause a number of fatal or serious respiratory conditions if fibres are

inhaled. Asbestos exposure is the most serious occupational health issue in the UK,

and is responsible for approximately 4,000 deaths each year.

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