Demolition work ordered to stop on Preston's historic St Joseph's Orphanage over asbestos fears
Demolition of a historic building in Preston city centre has been forced to stop due to ‘unsafe work practices’.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - the UK's national regulator for workplace health and safety - has ordered all work be suspended at the St Joseph’s Orphanage site in Mount Street.
The agency said enforcement action was taken to protect those working on the site and accused Lancashire-based contractor 151 Demolition of failing to prevent exposure of employees to asbestos.
It also claimed the firm had failed to dispose of the hazardous materials with a licensed asbestos contractor.
The HSE served two prohibition notices on the demolition firm on April 10, detailing its concerns and calling an immediate halt to work at the Mount Street site.
It said: “You (Demolition 151 Ltd) have failed to prevent exposure of employees to asbestos, as far as is reasonably practicable - work has not been carried accordance with the method statement - including, no water suppression or disposing of materials by a licensed asbestos contractor.
“You have also failed to ensure that work equipment is so constructed, or adapted, as to be suitable for the purpose for which it issued or provided - the excavator used for demolition work did not have falling object protection on the cab.”
A HSE spokesperson told the Post: “To prevent unsafe work, enforcement action was taken to protect those working on the site.”
It added that “work can resume on the site once the identified risks have been addressed by the duty-holder”.
Demolition boss - “One of the hardest jobs we’ve ever done”
“That job has been the bane of my life,” said Joe Young, owner of 151 Demolition, in a Facebook post.
“I am the owner of 151 Demolition and that has been one of the hardest jobs we have ever done with everybody watching over us all times and keep stopping us from one thing to another.
“As you can see we have been doing a good job and we just keep keep getting problem after problem.
“We’ve done a nice, safe and tidy job, but other people been ringing up HSE and then people wonder why it takes so long to do a job. Because we keep getting stopped all the time one thing after another!”
Mr Young added that his team have made an effort to save the building’s historic stained-glass windows.
He said: “If anybody was wondering, we did save the stained-glass window. I donated it to the Preston Heritage (Preston Historical Society). We are saving whatever we can that is historical for the building.”
Mr Young apologised for delays to the demolition work and said work is expected to resume next week.
Preston City Council declined to comment.