A company has been fined after an employee fell down a service riser shaft and sprained both his ankles at a construction site in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Meldrum Construction Services (MCS) Limited of Panteon Building, Lancaster Road, Dunston, Gateshead, was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay £1,969 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Regulations 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

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The court heard how MCS was the principal contractor for refurbishment work at premises in Percy Street on 06 July 2015.

As the company had failed to plan for the requirement of temporary platforms to be installed in the service riser, wooden floors were installed at the site to specifications they had not been designed for. Subsequently, a worker stepped onto the temporary floor on the first floor riser which collapsed and he fell 4.5 metres to the floor below.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that MCS failed to plan and manage the construction phase of the project in that they failed to plan and manage the temporary works within the service riser.

(LM/CD)