A construction company has been fined after a 64-year-old worker plummeted to his death from a seat suspended from a church steeple.
Ecclesiastical Steeplejacks, which has ceased trading, was ordered to pay £60,000 by Birmingham Magistrates’ Court last week.
The firm had employed David Clover to carry out restoration work to St Nicolas’ Church in Kings Norton in the West Midlands.
On 13 November 2020, he was suspended from the 60-metre-tall steeple of the Grade 1-listed building, sitting in a work seat known as a bosun’s chair, when he fell and suffered fatal injuries.
Ecclesiastical Steeplejacks, which was based at Maryvale Business Park in Birmingham, pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified that the bosun’s chair was not supported by a suitable backup system to prevent a fall.
HSE inspector Emma Page said: “Falls from height remain one of the leading causes of work-related deaths and injury in Great Britain.
“We will take action against companies that fail to protect workers. Our thoughts remain with the family of David Clover.”
HSE figures last year revealed a rise in the number of deaths of construction industry workers.
The data showed 51 construction workers died of injuries on site in the year to 31 March 2024.
This was more than double the rate of any other industry, with 23 fatalities recorded in the sector with the next highest incidence: agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Deaths in construction made up more than a third of the UK total across all sectors.
In other news earlier this month, a Fareham-based company was fined £120,000 after a worker broke his leg while adjusting a solar panel on a house in Salisbury in December 2022.
