Council fined £500,000 after dog walker killed by falling tree limb

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A council has been fined £500,000 after a tree limb fell and killed a man walking his dog in a public park.

Father-of-one Chris Hall was out with his cocker spaniel Benson on a path in The Carrs, a woodland area in Wilmslow, Cheshire on August 28, 2020.

The 48-year-old suffered fatal injuries when a “limb” from the Lime tree hit him as he walked on a path nearby.

Just 11 months before, in September 2019, another large limb of the same unstable tree had fallen.

It had been reported to Cheshire East Council and Ansa Environmental Services Ltd, their grounds services contractor owned by the council at arms length, so the entity could take on private non-council work.

But apart from a visual inspection by Ansa, no real action had been taken, despite “significant” structural issues, Matt Reynolds, prosecuting, for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Chester Magistrates Court heard.

The HSE investigation found no adequate inspection of the tree had been carried out to find out if it posed a risk and the council had no tree strategy to manage the risks from trees in public places even though other Ansa staff had expressed concern about the health of the tree.

Both the local authority, and Ansa, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act by exposing the public to risk.

Mr Hall’s wife Fiona read a victim impact statement to the court, watched by their son Sam and around 20 friends and family, who were seated in the public gallery.

Mrs Hall said her husband “loved life and life loved him”.

“His death was utterly senseless and wholly avoidable,” she added.

“He was simply walking our dog on a dry, warm, summer’s day.

“His loss is colossal; his absence is immense and he leaves a void that can never be filled.”

The court heard five or six people each year in the UK are killed by falling branches or trees, with the risk being one chance in 10 million of being killed that way.

David Lewis, representing the local authority and Ansa, offered their condolences to Mr Hall’s family and said a tree inspection regime was now in place.

But he said the council had a £20.5 million overspend this year and any fine meant money meant for local services would go into central government coffers, in an “inefficient recycling of funds”.

Passing sentence District Judge John McGarva said: “The 2019 limb fall should have been a wake-up call and prevented this tragedy.”

He said he could not equate any level of fine with the value of Mr Hall’s life and the council and Ansa were being fined because of how they managed risk.

But he told the court the law suggests fines for public bodies and charities should be reduced if it would have a significant impact on public services.

Judge McGarva said if he had been fining a private company he would have imposed a £1.5 million penalty, but as these were public bodies, the fine would be £500,000 for the council and a nominal £5 for Ansa, with legal costs of £7,284.

Outside court, HSE inspector Lorna Sherlock said: “This was an utterly tragic event that has caused the death of a much-loved husband and father.

“Had this public area been better managed, this death might have been avoided. No lessons were learned from the limb falling off the tree less than a year before.

“Fiona and the family have shown great courage and fortitude throughout their ordeal.”

Cheshire East Council recently decided to bring Ansa’s services back “in-house”.