Association fined £50,000 for boiler-blast death
A housing association has been fined £50,000 after a boiler explosion in one of its properties killed an elderly woman.
Christine Goodall, 65, died with her dog in her Gloucestershire home in November 2007 when a boiler which had not been correctly decommissioned exploded. She had lit a fire in her sitting room fireplace.
Today her landlord, Severn Vale Housing Society, was fined at Gloucester Crown Court and ordered to pay £7,500 in costs. Matthew Lee, the plumber who carried out the decommissioning work in 1999, was also fined £7,500 and will pay £1,500 costs.
The housing association had engaged Mr Lee to decommission the old back boiler in 1999. However, the instructions given by Severn Vale to Mr Lee were ambiguous, and he failed to drain the boiler, or provide any adequate vents should a build-up of pressure occur.
Both parties had entered a guilty plea at the earliest possible opportunity. Although he said he believed the accident was due to failures on both sides, Judge William Hart told the court the ‘principle responsibility’ lay with Severn Vale for failing to inspect Mr Lee’s work.
Outside the court, Hugh Aldridge, chief executive of Severn Vale, said: ‘We wish to make an unreserved apology to the family of the late Christine Goodall.
‘Through the publicity this case has attracted, we hope that such a tragedy would never occur again.’
Kevin Goodall, Ms Goodall’s eldest son, said after the sentencing: ‘Nothing will bring our mother back. The best we can hope for is this will prevent further tragedy.’
In a statement the trust questions whether the Health and Safety Executive could have issued guidance which could have helped prevent the death.
The statement said: ‘It was not until May 2008 that the HSE issued a safety alert which contained definitive advice for decommissioning boilers, despite having knowledge of several previous incidents.’
The HSE confirmed that its inspectors had been called to a number of incidents concerning decommissioned boilers, but had passed these on to local authorities to deal with because they were in private homes and its remit did not extend to them.
An HSE spokesperson said the alert was only issued after Ms Goodall’s death when a pattern regarding decommissioned boilers began to emerge.
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Readers' comments (47)
kass | 07/12/2009 3:50 pm
Could Hugh Aldridge, chief executive of Severn Vale, give here a plain, detailed account where the £50,000 for the fine will be taken out from?
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Harry Lime | 08/12/2009 9:13 am
You know the answer to this already Kass, it'll come from the same place that the plumbers costs will come from, namely their public liability insurance, a policy that every firm/organisation is obliged to take out, unless they can underwrite themselves.......
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kass | 08/12/2009 10:11 am
Harry Lime | Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:13 GMT
Exactly.. I am sure they have underwritten themselves in such a way to make sure killing a social tenant is not going to bring them any disturbance, so they can happily get on with their careers with hishg salaries and bonuses... Time and time again social tenants have been killed by their landlords and time and time again they come out with apologies and promises of making sure it won't happen again. And time and time again it keeps happening again...
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Loub | 08/12/2009 11:14 am
Kass why don't you start your own Housing Association or whatever you want to call it. Run it in the proper way that you know. You could lead by example.
So called Housing professionals could then learn by a proper professional.
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kass | 08/12/2009 11:26 am
Loub | Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:14 GMT
thanks for the suggestion, it's very appealing... But I am still thinking whether to take on a previous suggestion recommending me to run the country...
This predominat attitude in housing professionals (spreading nefariously to other bodies now, like the police, education, etc.) to respond to failures by telling those who bring their failures to their attention "if you can do it better, than you do it" it is simply not acceptable. You just cannot tell your customers, clients, serviced group, etc. if they do not like something to go and do it themselves.
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DavidJ | 08/12/2009 12:08 pm
Kass - I believe the suggestion is not unreasonable, and that maybe rather than critisising every event on the forum that on the odd occasion you come up with a constructive, positive solution to any of the issues (other than jail, fining, sacking, hanging, drawing, and quartering). We can all sit around whinging about what if & why not, but it takes experience, knowledge, and positivity to give a rounded view and outcome to any given situation. With regards your other opportunity surely your best start would be Russia or China!!!!
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La | 08/12/2009 1:09 pm
Kass
The Audit Commission is currently recruiting for tenant inspeciton advisors. Instead of constantly bashing landlords and their staff, why don't you apply and get some training and experience in making real judgments and comparisons across a range of different organsations.
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Peter | 08/12/2009 3:05 pm
I am puzzled with explanation of the explosion and the decommissioning of the boiler. Does anyone know exactly what happened with the back boiler and what caused the 'built-up pressure'? How would a decommissioned boiler explode?
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Nigel W | 08/12/2009 3:45 pm
Kass, I wonder if you have any statistics to compare the mortality rate among HA tenants with local authorities, private sector, and owner occupiers, arising from landlord negligence?
Perhaps then you could use this evidence to substantiate your claim that HA chief executives are indifferent to the safety of their tenants. You might then go on to explain why perfectly ordinary men and women work for these unprincipled demons, at not terribly inflated salaries, and collude in their wickedness.
Then you'd have a really good story about a nationwide conspiracy involving tens of thousands of people to murder the most vulnerable people in society. Justice is surely on your side.
Or are you just paranoid, and at a loose end today?
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kass | 08/12/2009 4:00 pm
La | Tue, 8 Dec 2009 13:09 GMT
Yes, I did apply for that... But it's a lottery with so many applying.
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