Three companies who were developing residential apartments in Essex have been fined after a large scaffold collapsed and narrowly missed injuring workers.

Parkland Developments of Witham Road, Black Notley pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. They were fined £20,000 with over £2,800 in costs.

S C Cousins Scaffolding of Church St, Billericay pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 4(1)(a), 5 and 8(b) of the Work at Height Regulations. They were fined £15,000 and ordered to pay over £1,900 in costs.

Haze and Safety of Meadowside, Braintree pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations Regulation 20(1)(a) & (b) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. They were fined £5,000 with over £1,900 in costs.

Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard how the work was being undertaken at the Former Riverside Centre in Braintree on 1 July 2014.

A scaffold, which was forty metres in length and five lifts high, collapsed into the River Brain as workers leapt through window openings to avoid falling with it.

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) investigation discovered numerous safety failings on the site, including:

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• The CDM co-ordinator (Haze and Safety) had failed to provide suitable and sufficient advice to the client (Parkland Developments) or ensure that the arrangements were being implemented on site

• The principal contractor (Parkland Developments) failed to implement the construction phase plan or ensure that they planned and managed or monitored the scaffolding works

• The scaffolding contractor failed to plan the work or design the scaffold. They also failed to send trained and competent workers to site. In the weeks before the collapse, a scaffolding labourer was acting as the supervisor and overseeing trainee scaffolders in erecting, altering and inspecting the scaffold.

• Not one of the duty holders had identified there was no design for the scaffold.

Following the incident, a Prohibition Notice was served by the HSE, stopping all further work until an adequate design had drawn up.

However, SC Cousins continued to send untrained scaffolders to site and Parkland Developments allowed them to adapt the scaffold.

Parkland also continued to allow site labourers to adapt scaffolding, even providing the tools to do so.

The court was told Parkland Developments had received an inspection from HSE at the same site several months prior to the collapse, where five enforcement notices were issued for other management failings.

A Notification of Contravention was also issued on Haze and Safety for failing to provide suitable and sufficient advice to the client.

At a different site five weeks prior, SC Cousins Scaffolding received an inspection from HSE at a different site five weeks before the collapse and had been informed of the design requirements for scaffolding.

HSE inspector Adam Hills said: "This collapse was entirely preventable and it is only by chance that multiple fatalities did not occur. It beggars belief that following the collapse, no lessons were learnt and untrained people were still allowed to adapt the scaffold.

"This case highlights the importance of ensuring those who undertake construction work have the relevant skills, knowledge, training and experience to do so."

(LM/CD)