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FJD
Wetherspoon Plc, owners of the Bell Hotel, Norwich, were fined
£2350 and face a legal bill of £8000 after a mother
holding her baby son fell 9ft after the trap door to a pub
cellar was left open.
Neither
Miranda Chipping nor her son, who was two years old at the
time, was badly hurt in the fall.
The
city's magistrates heard the accident came about following
a lapse in health and safety procedures. The hatch had been
left open while a member of staff moved a barrel. Ordinarily
safety barriers would be put in place.
Wetherspoon
pleaded guilty to one count of failing to ensure the safety
of members of the public and one of failing to put in place
a proper risk assessment.
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Meanwhile a Norwich landlord has been prosecuted by the city
council, and lost his livelihood, for failing to ensure that
ice was protected from contamination and for exposing his
employees to risk.
A council
survey of the bacteriological quality of ice in the pub
found that the ice-making machine was covered with mildew
and lime scale. Eight gas cylinders were not attached to
the wall and so presented a hazard.
The
owner, who had been cautioned previously for similar offences,
now has a criminal record and can longer run a pub.
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