05 January 2007

A leisure company that failed to remove asbestos from a nightclub has been fined £90,000 for ?choosing profit over safety?.

Towering Leisure, which runs the Atlantis Arena in Great Yarmouth, admitted failing to protect its 57 employees and thousands of night clubbers.

Norwich crown court heard the company?s directors did not act on a report they commissioned that showed there was high-risk asbestos in the building.

Recorder Guy Ayers said the directors had known about the dangers for 11 months. ?The level of potential harm was high. They could have closed the club to do the necessary work but they decided profits came first,? he said. He added that the firm had made a conscious decision to carry on operating the nightclub despite the report. ?They already had some experience dealing with asbestos and were therefore well aware of how dangerous it was and how much it would cost to remedy the situation,? he said.

An inspector from Yarmouth Borough Council closed the club in 2005 because there was a substantial risk to health.

Towering Leisure said the directors were ashamed, remorseful and embarrassed. The court heard they had since spent £300,000 on removing the asbestos. Earlier, directors Rodney Scott and Colin Abbott had pleaded guilty at Yarmouth magistrates court to failing to sufficiently protect the safety of staff and visitors, and to three breaches of asbestos at work regulations.

Sarah Cawston, Yarmouth BC conservation manager, said the fine reflected the seriousness of the offences.

© 2007 Chartered Institute of Environmental Health