Crane collapse firm was warned

Select Plant Hire was served with an improvement notice after inspectors found examination reports carried out by the company did not say when defects should be put right.

Improvement notices are issued when officials find a breach of the law that they consider is likely to continue or be repeated.

Companies are given a date by which to comply and are liable to face prosecution if insufficient improvement is made.

Select was in breach of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations Act and the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was given 24 days, until 26 February, to improve its set-up, which it did.

A Select spokesperson said: “The notice concerned a technical issue relating to how we explained and recorded information on lifting operation inspection reports.

We worked with the HSE and the matter was resolved
satisfactorily

Select plant Hire spokesperson

“We worked with the HSE to provide greater clarity in these reports and the matter was resolved satisfactorily.”

The debris from the crane collapse on 2 June has now been cleared, with pieces returned to Select’s depot in Cambridgeshire.

An HSE spokesperson said it was not necessary for any to be taken to its laboratory in Buxton, Derbyshire, as the site inspection was “quite straightforward”.

Work is expected to continue this week, although the Croydon Park Hotel, near the accident site, will be closed until 9 July.

Building’s Safer Skyline campaign has been highlighting crane safety since January, when two fatal crane collapses occurred within four months of each other.