Last updated 11:20, Friday, 21 November 2008

The employers of a man who died after plunging 350ft down a radioactive Sellafield chimney have together been fined £250,000 for breaching health and safety practices which led to his death.

At Carlisle Crown Court today, Judge Paul Batty QC slammed the working practices of contractors P C Richardson & Co (Middlesbrough) Ltd, who Neil Cannon worked for,  and Sellafield Ltd saying his death was “an accident waiting to happen.”

Judge Batty QC criticised the failings of both companies. “If proper working practices had been followed then Mr Cannon would not have met an untimely and tragic death,” he said.

Both companies pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of their employees after Mr Cannon’s accident on January 9, 2003.

Mr Cannon, 36, of The Forge, Cleator, was working on a ledge in the diffuser section of the Windscale Pile B6 chimney.

He was trying to manoeuvre a beam off the ledge to fall to the bottom of the chimney. The sharp bracket on the beam severed his safety harness, known as a lanyard, and the weight of the beam took him over the edge.

He was working for P C Richardson at the time.

After the court case, Barry Snelson, managing director of Sellafield Ltd, said: “We owe it to Neil to make his death the last that ever happens on the Sellafield site.

“I express on behalf of Sellafield our deepest and most sincere apologies.

“It took the loss of an irreplaceable and precious life to set us on a journey of continuous safety improvement which will never end.”

P C Richardson & Co was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 towards prosecution costs and Sellafield Ltd was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £50,500 costs.