Council fined for school gas explosion

06 April 2004 by
Council fined for school gas explosion

Bristol City Council has been fined £17,000 after a gas explosion in a school kitchen badly burned a catering manager.

The council admitted failing to ensure that gas appliances were inspected and failing to ensure that proper safety systems were installed at Withywood Community School, during a hearing before Bristol magistrates.

The court was told that catering manager Mary Clark suffered burns to her hands, wrists and lips after gas, which had leaked from a faulty valve, flared up as she lit the oven. A subsequent Health & Safety Executive investigation showed that the gas appliances at the school, which had opted out of the council's maintenance service, had not been serviced for three years.

Even so, the council remained responsible for the safety and monitoring of appliances, the court was told. In mitigation, it was argued that the situation had been made more complicated by the inexact nature of the authority's relationship with local schools.

The council was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,400. After the case, the council's director of education, John Gaskin, said: "A monitoring system is now in place, and further training has been held."

Clark is thought to have agreed an undisclosed sum in compensation for her injuries.

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