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Council to be prosecuted over school gas leak
A COUNCIL is to be prosecuted accused of failing to protect children and teachers from deadly carbon monoxide gas.
Twenty-five pupils from a North-East school were rushed to hospital after complaining of feeling sleepy.
It later emerged carbon monoxide was seeping into classrooms at Crookhill Primary School, Ryton.
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One was kept in hospital overnight but none were seriously injured.
The incident happened on November 14, 2006 but the Health and Safety Executive only announced it intended to prosecute Gateshead Council this evening.
A spokesman for the executive said: "The council will face a criminal charge for a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
"HSE alleges that Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council did not have an effective gas safety management system and therefore did not do everything reasonably practicable to ensure the health and safety of people they did not employ."
The executive's investigation into the incident focused on three gas-fired boilers underneath the classroom and their fluing arrangements.
Investigators were joined by a specialist engineers to determine the cause of the leakage at the school.
Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer, as it cannot be seen, heard or smelt, and the Northern Echo is running campaign to raise awareness of the dangers.
Faulty boilers, fires and gas cookers, together with blocked flues and chimneys, are the most common sources of the gas in the home, which can kill within ten minutes in a confined space.
The maximum penalty in the magistrates' court for a single offence of breaching Section three of HSWA is a fine of up to 20,000.
It is up to magistrates to commit cases for trial or sentencing to the crown Court, where the maximum penalty for the same offence would be an unlimited fine.
John Robinson, group director of local environmental services at Gateshead Council, said: "We take health and safety very seriously at Gateshead Council and have co-operated fully with the HSE throughout its investigation and will continue to do so.
"This is now a legal matter and we are unable to comment further at the present time."
The date for the first hearing at Gateshead Magistrates' Court is February 19 at 10.30am.
Sent: 12/02/2008
Email us direct at: repairs@londonheatingservices.co.uk
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