Friday, November 02, 2007
The Cooperative Group was fined £250,000 for breaches of fire safety laws at its branches in Sussex. This is possibly the highest fine in such a case where no death or injury had occured. The Fire and Rescue Service had found various breaches of the law, including the lack of written risk assessments, an inactive fire alarm, fire doors wedged open (fire extinguishers can make great door stops), and stock stored in fire escape routes. In all, a deficiency notice was served on 38 of the 41 Coop stores in Sussex. The company said that the problems arose from the purchase, in a short period of time, of a number of Allday stores. But the Fire and Rescue Service said "if you are spending millions buying a chain you should budget for enough to bring them up to the required spec before trading". A spokesperson for CWS is quoted as saying they "...assure our customers that procedures are now in place to avoid any similar breaches of health & safety legislation".