A Wirral property maintenance firm has been fined for allowing employees to stand on a sloping roof to carry out repairs, including powerwashing it.

Canova UK Ltd, of Milner Road, Heswell, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to ensure scaffolding, edge protection or other safety equipment was in place to stop workers being injured in a fall.

Wirral Magistrates' Court heard an HSE inspector visited a bungalow on Irby Road in Heswall on 29 January 2010 after receiving a complaint about work on the site.

Two employees had been using a power washer to remove moss and other detritus.

When the inspector visited the property, he saw one of the workers standing at the ridge of the roof, more than four metres above the ground. The other employee was also on the roof at the rear of the bungalow. He issued an immediate prohibition notice stopping the work on the roof.


The court was told that the company had previously received a prohibition notice following a similar incident at a property on Parkgate Road in Neston on 16 October 2009.

Canova UK Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, Michael Hodge, the HSE inspector who visited the house in Heswall, said: "It's extremely disappointing that Canova UK allowed two of its employees to work on a roof without safety equipment, despite receiving a formal warning over a similar incident less than four months earlier.

"If either of the workers had slipped and fallen, they would have been seriously injured or even killed. We therefore had no other choice but to prosecute the company.

"Falls from height are among the biggest causes of workplace deaths in the UK. Roofing firms should therefore ensure they have safe systems of work in place to protect workers."

(CD/GK)