A property restoration and development company has been fined after workers and the public were exposed to asbestos in a Lincolnshire town.
J Hodgson and Sons Ltd., of Carre Street, Sleaford, disturbed asbestos insulating board during refurbishment work at the former White Hart pub between March and June 2011.
The company placed the material in an open skip close to a busy thoroughfare in the early stages of stripping out the building. A surveyor visiting the premises reported this to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which immediately served a Prohibition Notice stopping all work at the site until the firm employed a licensed asbestos removal company to take the material away.
At Lincoln Magistrates' Court, on 10 September, J Hodgson and Sons Ltd. pleaded guilty to two separate breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 for failing to prevent the spread of asbestos and exposure to it. The company was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000.