Cutbacks should not be used as excuse for safety breaches, says councillor

Cutback should not be used as an excuse for breaches of health and safety law by Wrexham Council, a local councillor has declared.

It follows an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which identified a catalogue of failings by the local authority.

The probe was instigated after the council was prosecuted in 2017 for shortcomings in assessing the risk posed to staff by vibrations, which resulted in a worker suffering from hand-arm vibration syndrome.

Officials found it had not learnt lessons from the case and also uncovered other problems, including danger being caused by asbestos at Ysgol Bryn Alyn in Gwersyllt.

Some of the issues could have led to the authority being prosecuted for a second time, but at a meeting held yesterday council leaders said they had made adequate progress to satisfy HSE.

However, Cllr Geoff Lowe said he found the contents of the report concerning.

The independent councillor also asked for reassurances that the council, which needs to make a further £10m worth of cuts in the next two years, would not use a lack of funds as an excuse.

He said: “I’ve heard all about the resources issues that we’re all facing and the difficulties that brings in the organisation, but it still doesn’t distract from some of the issues in this report which we must be concerned about.

“I’ve heard various references by various people this afternoon about culture change.

“I’ve also heard that over a number of years and it’s not been as successful as any of us would have liked.

“We must be sure that contractors in particular are working in a proper manner that is protecting the people they’re working around. You sometimes feel that we’re not as diligent as we could be.”

A total of 31 health and safety incidents were raised to the council’s chief executive in 2018/19.

They included a child bringing a BB gun to school and concerns over the safety of staff leaving one of the authority’s main offices on Lambpit Street.

Meanwhile, the report also showed the authority has incurred potential costs of close to £400,000 as a result of insurance claims by staff since 2015, with the highest amount of £205,000 relating to four claims by school worker left injured by students.

While only just under £24,000 has been paid out to date, around £373,000 has been set aside by insurance companies to cover claims that have yet to be settled.

In response to the comments by Cllr Lowe, council leader Mark Pritchard promised he would make money available to tackle the issues raised.

He also blamed managers for some of the problems.

He said: “I’ve made my position very clear as leader of the county that if there aren’t enough resources then it won’t wash with me.

“I’ve made it very clear to everybody that if there’s extra resources needed to deliver health and safety appropriately in this authority then resources will be found.

“We’ve got to recognise that this authority is a big organisation and there’s a lot of good work that goes on here.

“Unfortunately, some departments failed to recognise health and safety and that’s why the HSE got involved.

“I put it down to poor management – I believe there’s no bad staff as if they’re allowed to get away with it then they’ll continue to get away with it.”

At the end of the meeting, members of the customers, performance, resources and governance scrutiny committee asked to receive an update on the situation in six months’ time.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).