Council fined £27k after guilty plea over its Legionella management systems

A district council has been fined £27,000 after it pleaded guilty to a single charge relating to its Legionella management systems.

The Health & Safety Executive prosecuted Tendring District Council following a case of Legionnaire’s Disease contracted by a customer at Walton-on-the-Naze Lifestyles leisure centre two years ago.

The HSE’s investigation was launched in November 2016 after the case, and as a result the agency charged Tendring over its systems for managing the risk of Legionella at some of its leisure centre sites.

In addition to fining the council, Colchester Magistrates’ Court imposed costs of £7,197 and a statutory victim surcharge of £170.

Ian Davidson, Tendring’s chief executive, said the council fully accepted the fine.

He said: “On behalf of Tendring District Council I would like to apologise to the individual, a regular customer at Walton-on-the-Naze Lifestyles who contracted Legionnaires’ Disease and whose illness triggered the Health and Safety Executive investigation which resulted in today’s hearing.

“I would like to reassure the public, and particularly our leisure centre customers, that our leisure centres are safe. We deeply regret that standards fell below the high level that we hold ourselves to, and we know which the public expect from us.”

Davidson added: “As the court heard, as soon as we became aware of potential shortcomings in our processes for managing Legionella risk we took immediate action to address those issues. This included closing the gym showers and then the whole leisure centre, carrying out checks, and bringing in an external specialist water management contractor to thoroughly review and update our processes.

“It is important to note that the council was not ignorant of Legionella, but our systems for managing the risk fell short of the standard they should have been.”