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Construction firm fined after ignoring deep excavation safety warnings
Cristina Lago Deputy Editor
A South Wales renovation company has been fined £40,000 and ordered to pay almost £6,000 in costs after defying enforcement notices from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Greenlife Property Developments Ltd failed to heed inspectors’ warnings about the dangers posed to workers by a 2.5m-deep excavation of the entire back garden of a house in Pit Place, Cwmbach, Aberdare.
Reports of unsafe construction work were followed by an HSE inspection in September 2023, which found that the sides of the excavation were vertical, leaving a risk of rubble subsiding or collapsing without warning.
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It also found that the site had not been secured to prevent unauthorised access. There was also no risk assessment for the refurbishment works and no safe system of work.
Craig Lewis, managing director at Greenlife Property Developments Ltd, was present on site at the time.
The 2.5m-deep excavation site at the back of a house’s garden (Image: HSE)
Prohibition notice
The HSE served Greenlife Property Developments a prohibition notice requiring it to stop construction work within the excavation until it had corrected defects under a safe system of work.
Two improvement notices were also served requiring Greenlife Property Developments to secure the site and obtain advice on the risks to workers inside the excavation and implement a safe system of work.
However, a subsequent HSE investigation found the company had breached the prohibition notice by continuing construction work inside the excavation. It had also failed to comply with the improvement notices.
Lewis ignored repeated attempts by HSE to contact him in relation to the notices served and the conditions on site, and attempted to deceive HSE by providing false information in relation to the actions taken by the company to comply with the notices.
An HSE investigation found a risk of rubble subsiding or collapsing without warning
'Flagrant disregard of the law'
Greenlife Property Developments Ltd, of Gurnos Estate, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, Wales, was found guilty of breaching Section 33(1)(c) and two breaches of Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,812.57 in costs at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court on 20 January 2025.
HSE inspector Rachael Newman said: “Every year people are killed or seriously injured by collapsing and falling materials while working in excavations.
“The attempts to evade us were a deliberate breach and flagrant disregard of the law.
“The fine imposed on Greenlife Property Developments Ltd should highlight to everyone in the construction industry that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to comply with the law and enforcement notices extremely seriously. We will not hesitate to take action against companies that don’t do all they should to keep people safe.”
The November/December 2025 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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