A CONSTRUCTION company has received a £100,000 fine for running an unsafe timber-frame building site in Blaenavon, with fears over fire safety cited by investigators.

J G Hale Construction Ltd, from Neath, pleaded guilty at Cwmbran Magistrates Court on Friday, August 5 to two breaches of construction regulations, resulting in fines of £40,000 and £60,000 respectively.

An investigation was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on Wednesday, July 27, after an unannounced visit was made to the site in the north of the borough.

The site at which the company were working is Hillside in Blaenavon, creating a number of properties on the site of the former Hillside school.

Inspectors found 54 timber-frame houses under construction in Torfaen, and discovered that measures to prevent fire starting or from getting out of control were not properly enforced or managed.

Assessors of the site also found that the houses were under construction at broadly the same stage with little fire protection, a lack of site management control and insufficient means to detect a fire and raise the alarm.

Poor control of ignition sources and a general lack of emergency planning were also found at the site while concerns were raised for workers, at risk of being struck or crushed by construction vehicles on site.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Liam Osborne said: “Hale Construction had been given plenty of warnings about fire-safety and traffic risks in the recent past, including from HSE.

“Timber-frame houses are perfectly safe once they’re finished and protected, but when under construction they can be very dangerous.

“Stringent fire-safety standards need to be in place well before the build starts, and then maintained and monitored,” he added.

Improvement notices were served regarding fire and vehicle safety issues and these were complied with after two further inspection visits, inspectors found.

J G Hale Construction, who also manufacture timber frames for the construction industry, were found guilty of breaching regulations 27 and 29 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

In addition to the fines, they were ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £4,633.76 and a statutory surcharge of £120.