Bosley Mill: Workers raised safety concerns before blast court told

Employees at a mill where an explosion killed four workers raised concerns about safety, but were told "we need to make money", a court has heard.

Cleaner Dorothy Bailey, 62, maintenance fitter Derek William Barks (known as Will), 51, mill worker Derek Moore, 62, and chargehand Jason Shingler, 38, died when an explosion of wood dust destroyed the Wood Treatment Ltd mill in Bosley, Cheshire, in July 2015.

A jury sitting at the Nightingale court at Chester Town Hall on Monday was told staff described a "make do and mend approach" at the mill.

Wood Treatment Ltd has admitted a health and safety offence but denies four counts of corporate manslaughter - while director George Boden, 64, denies four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and a health and safety offence, the court heard.

Operations manager Philip Smith, 58, of Raglan Road, Macclesfield, and mill manager Peter Shingler, 56, of Tunstall Road, Bosley both deny a health and safety offence.

Opening the prosecution case, Tony Badenoch QC said Boden, of Church Road, Stockport, became managing director of the mill in 2012.

He said the mill had about 50 staff, many who had worked there for decades, and following the blast they spoke to authorities about health and safety standards.

He said: "Chargehands, electricians, fitters, and labourers spoke, almost universally, of deterioration at the mill since the Bodens had taken over."

The court was shown video footage taken by employees who had "serious concerns" about safety at the mill.

Mr Badenoch said: "There is some evidence that the employees' concerns were met with this response: 'we're not making any profits, we need to make money'.

"That position ultimately led to the loss of four lives."

One chargehand had previously described the mill as a "ticking time bomb", the court was told.

He said, prior to the explosion, the company had cut the number of cleaning staff from four to just Ms Bailey, but when the Health and Safety Executive was due to visit, other staff would be offered overtime to help clean.

He told the jury the company would dump industrial waste into the adjacent river and had one piece of machinery dubbed the "Riverside Dog" because it was in such poor repair it had to be chained to the floor to prevent it moving around.

The court heard firefighters were called to the mill just after 9am on July 17 2015 and found a scene which one of them described as "like out of the movies", with casualties and walking wounded.

Maintenance fitter Peter Lea; mill worker Claire Louise Thorley; quality control technician Robert Lowe and heavy good vehicle driver Stuart Southern-Naylor were seriously injured in the explosion.

The site was treated as a rescue scene for more than a week after the explosion in the hope of finding missing people alive, but the body of Mr Shingler was never found, the court was told.

The trial was adjourned to Tuesday