The owners of Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel, near Grantham, have been fined a six-figure sum after a successful prosecution by South Kesteven District Council for breaches of health and safety regulations.

After pleading guilty to eight charges the company, Stoke Rochford Hall 1, formerly Talash No. 6 Ltd, was fined a total of £220,000 and ordered to pay costs of £32,606 plus a £170 victim surcharge.

SKDC Cabinet Member for Commercial and Operations, Cllr Dr Peter Moseley, said: “These were serious offences. Improvement notices were repeatedly extended but the company failed to co-operate with council officers who were trying to help them.

“The level of fines imposed shows how serious this case was. It sends a clear message to other businesses about the importance of following health and safety regulations and the potential consequences of not doing so.”

The hotel first came to SKDC’s attention after a council food, health and safety officer visited on 31 May, 2017, for a routine food hygiene inspection and noticed there was a damaged electrical cable across a walkway on the kitchen floor and exposed cables in the dish wash area.

The company admitted:

• Failing to comply with an improvement notice that required the electrical installation at the venue to be inspected and tested by a competent person; any work’s required in the electrician’s report to make the electrical installation safe; and where work was required, to provide satisfactory documentation that it had been completed.
• Failing to report an accident within the statutory time period after a member of staff was injured in a fall at the premises.
• Failing to provide staff with suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training, regarding a substance hazardous to health.
• Failing to prevent, or adequately control, the exposure of staff to substances hazardous to health.
• Failing to operate Stoke Rochford Hall in such a way that people not employed there, who might be affected, were not exposed to risks to their health and safety in that it failed to implement measures to monitor and control the risk of legionella.
• Failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, by failing to implement measures to monitor and control the risk of legionella.
• Failing to ensure that all systems, as far as was reasonably practicable, prevented danger in that exposed cabling and cable connectors in the bathroom of a room in Woodland Lodge presented a risk of electric shock.
• Failing to operate the hotel and gym in such a way as to ensure people not employed there were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

The offences were committed between 28 February 2017 and 26 January 2019.

Cllr Dr Moseley said: “Businesses and employers have a responsibility to protect their staff and customers’ safety and welfare.

“SKDC will always offer advice and work with them to ensure they comply with health and safety regulations but will not shy away from enforcement and legal action if necessary.”