Published: Wednesday, 20th January, 2010 6:29pm

Safety step up at Hunterston 'A'

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Safety at the weather barrier at Hunterston 'A' has been improved, the 'News' can reveal.

An employee, who e-mailed the 'News' said: "In December last year, investigations started into Magnox North, Hunterston A site, and a contractor (KDC), who are currently involved in the decommissioning of the site.

"As a result the job was stopped and the entire site close to being shut down. It was subsequently found that the asbestos removal was not up to standard and employees were put at risk.

"There are also other investigations taking place concerning serious health and safety breaches. As a result of the temporary weather barrier job being stopped, KDC (the contractor) has laid off over 20 local employees ranging from labourers to scaffolders yet have retained almost all travelling labour which they pay travel money and housing costs."

A spokeswoman for Hunterston 'A' responsed: "Safety concerns were recently raised by the workforce of KDC contractors currently working on the weather barrier project at Hunterston A Site, Magnox North.

"As a result of these issues raised, work on the project was suspended and the HSE inspector was invited to visit. Safety and compliance always come first in Magnox North and we always look to cooperate fully with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to address any issues they might identify.

"Magnox North promotes a "just and fair" open reporting culture and additionally has a well established confidential internal reporting process, designed for employees to raise their concerns anonymously, about exactly this type of issue.

"The issues that were reported relate to conventional safety on the weather barrier work, specifically working at height, use of scaffolding and limited asbestos removal work. Work on this project alone was stopped while our sub-contractors prepared and implemented an improvement plan to address the issues raised. A number of actions have been taken to both reassure and improve safety and some aspects of the work has already restarted with all remaining work expected to have restarted by 18 January 2010."

Full story in this week's Largs and Millport News.