PUPILS and staff at a school in Stanford-le-Hope were potentially exposed to asbestos due to a company’s failure to follow safety regulations, it has been revealed.

The Health and Safety Executive has hit the company with a £30,000 fine after failing to ensure the safe removal of asbestos at two separate sites.

DOV Services LTD, the company behind the firm, “Asbestos Gone”, was ordered to pay the fine and its director fined £5,000.

Between March 30, and April 7, 2021, it also removed asbestos cement sheets from the fascia of a school gymnasium and sports hall in Stanford-le-Hope.

The Health and Safety Executive say the company failed to follow a safe system of work for the removal, with little to no control measures in place to protect its own workers, or pupils and staff at the school from exposure to asbestos.

The Health and Safety Executive adds that asbestos debris was found on the roofs, on top of the covered walkway around the buildings, and on the floor at the base of the gymnasium and sports hall.

As a result of the poor work, the school had to engage a licenced asbestos contractor to undertake a remedial environmental clean.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said the work they carried out “put children and others at risk”.

She said: “It is a sad irony that a company trading under the name of Asbestos Gone could make such a shambles of safely removing such a dangerous substance.

“DOV Services Ltd removed loose fill asbestos insulation, probably the most dangerous asbestos-containing material, from the site in Redhill, without having a licence to do so.

“It also put children and others, including its own workers and their families, at risk by failing to remove asbestos cement sheets from the school in Stanford-le-Hope under controlled conditions.”

At Southwark Crown Court on April 16, DOV Services Ltd, of Bradbourne Stables, East Malling, Kent, pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 8 of The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

The company was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,260.85.

Company director David Ryce also pleaded guilty to all charges and was fined £5,000 and also ordered to pay costs of £7,260.85.