Newport City Council has been fined after building work at a house exposed a woman and her foster children to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution against the Welsh local authority, which pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £11,000 in costs.
In November 2010, a home improvement company was contracted to carry out loft conversion work at a property in Bettws, near Newport, on behalf of Newport City Council. As part of the improvement work the company had to move a boiler and replace a flue, which they left in an 'immediately dangerous' condition with the potentially lethal fumes escaping into the loft space.
On 24 June, Cwmbran Magistrates heard that the householder had agreed to modifications to her home with a grant from the council to accommodate foster children. The company was contracted for the job which included the relocation of the boiler into the new loft space and replacing the flue from the gas fire.
The householder, who lives at her home with four adolescents, complained the boiler was not working properly and was leaking, and arranged for an independent engineer to examine the work. The engineer found the pressure relief valve had not been connected and confirmed the boiler was leaking. He advised her not to use the equipment and contacted Gas Safe Register, who sent an officer to investigate.
Gas Safe found the boiler was not correctly fitted and the flue from the gas fire had been capped just below the level of the loft, allowing poisonous carbon monoxide gas into the loft space.
The investigation by HSE found that Newport City Council had told the householder to contract the company without checking its competence or monitoring its work. In addition, the council did not follow its own procedures for choosing contractors. Although the authority kept a list of approved firms it did not supply this to the householder and did not involve the council department which normally dealt with such work.
