Contractor Farrans and a security specialist have been fined a total of £868,800 after a site guard froze to death on a remote windfarm job in Ayrshire.

Ayr Sheriff Court heard that just after midnight on 22 January 2018, Ronald (Ronnie) Alexander, a 74-year-old security guard employed by Corporate Service Management Limited, was found by Police Scotland’s Mountain Rescue Team at Afton Windfarm, near New Cumnock.

He was found lying face down and hypothermic, in deep snow and died later that day having never regained consciousness.

Corporate Service Management Limited was contracted by Northstone (NI) Limited, who trade as Farrans, to provide security for the site.

Following a site visit by the managing director and operations director of Corporate Service Management, it was agreed that two guards would be required because it was known that mobile phone signals offsite were very poor.

Around lunchtime on 21 January, as forecast, the weather deteriorated resulting in deep drifts on the road to the site from New Cumnock, and the road between the gatehouse where Alexander worked and the site compound where his colleague was stationed.

Although mobile phone communications were known to be poor and inconsistent at the site there was no landline. Two-way radios were available, but these could only be used for the guards to speak with each other and not offsite.

An HSE investigation found that when preparing their emergency weather plan, Northstone (NI) Ltd had failed to include those times when nobody from the company would be present at the site.

The company also failed to ensure there was a back-up generator at either of the guard’s locations to ensure that their welfare area would have heating and lighting should the main generator fail, despite this having occurred on several occasions previously.

Northstone (NI) Ltd did not ensure that Alexander or his colleague had a reliable means of calling for help.

At around 5pm, Alexander’s colleague managed to obtain a signal on his mobile phone and reported to Corporate Service Management’s control room that not only had the generator failed, but that the only means of transporting the men offsite, a 4×4 vehicle, had become trapped in the deep snow at the site compound.

Despite this, Corporate Service Management did not call the emergency services until after 9pm.

Corporate Service Management’s emergency plan relied on there being effective communication between the guards and their control room, however they failed to provide this or to make sure that Northstone (NI) Ltd had provided this at the site.

Northstone (NI) Limited of Belfast pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined £768,000.

Corporate Service Management Limited of Glasgow also pleaded guilty and was fined £100,800.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Gerard Muir said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided had either company ensured that a suitable assessment had been made of the risk to those working at the site in poor weather, that suitable and sufficient means had been provided for the guards to communicate offsite, and that back-up generators had been provided, particularly when they knew how often the main generator had failed.

“By simply carrying out these correct control measures and ensuring safe working practices at this site, this tragic event could have been avoided.

“Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”

Environmental management company BHSL has agreed to acquire water contractor Glan Agua.

Clean water and wastewater solutions specialist Glan Agua works with leading water utilities in the UK and Ireland and is a division of a Portuguese engineering and construction company Mota-Engil.

The acquisition will more than double BHSL’s revenues with plans for sales in 2022 of over £85m.

The combined businesses will have over 300 staff across the UK and Ireland with expansion of Glan Agua set to add a further 50 employees in the coming months.

The move expands its operations into adjacent water services and waste management activities.

BHSL currently provides technological and engineering solutions to the growing global waste market by simultaneously providing an alternative to waste disposal by converting waste to heat and electricity.

Glan Agua has a strong pipeline of new business opportunities in the water treatment, supply, and wastewater management sector for customers including Irish Water, Thames Water, Affinity Water, Yorkshire Water and local authorities across the UK and Ireland.

Denis Brosnan, Executive Chairman of BHSL said: “Glan Agua is an excellent fit for BHSL and the acquisition supports our strategy to expand as an environmental solutions business, focussed on extracting value from waste products, and supporting the circular economy.

“Glan Agua’s blue-chip client base in the UK and Ireland provides a strong platform for further expansion in the municipal water and waste sector.  Our well supported fund raise provides us with the financial resources to support this acquisition and to drive our growth strategy.”

Karl Zimmerer, Managing Director of Glan Agua added: Joining with BHSL is an exciting step for the Glan Agua team, where we will become part of a rapidly growing business with a focus on the water and waste management industry in the UK and Ireland.

“Glan Agua has a proven track record of delivering for its customers through our 13 years in business, and we share BHSL’s commitment to innovation and helping our customers address environmental challenges safely, sustainably and responsibly, creating value with waste residue where possible.”

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Advisors at the National Infrastructure Commission have announced the sectors that will “sit at the heart”of its next major assessment of the country’s investment priorities.

Key areas will include identifying the infrastructure needed for hydrogen and carbon capture and storage to decarbonise parts of the economy, improving recycling rates and surface transport within and between cities and towns.

The commission will undertake focused work to help address unanswered questions around the net zero transition, such as defining the limits of heat pumps for home heating, the role of hydrogen in heat and the future of the gas grid and exploring ways of reducing congestion and future demand on roads.

All sectors will need to take the opportunities offered by new digital technologies to cut costs, enhance service quality and improve resilience.

A baseline report published today to prepare for 2023’s Assessment surveys the current state of the digital, energy, flood resilience, water and wastewater, waste and transport sectors.

It paints a mixed picture of UK infrastructure, with networks performing well in some areas but with significant work necessary in others to meet the challenges posed by climate change, environmental decline and behaviour change. It notes:

The UK has made significant progress on gigabit broadband rollout and there is wide reach of 4G mobile connectivity, though there is further to go to avoid any places being left behind;Major strides in decarbonising electricity generation, with around 40% of electricity generated from renewable sources, though there is still a need for substantial further reductions to reach near zero emissions by 2035;Limited progress so far on the transition to low carbon heating for homes, with a ‘stop start’ approach to energy efficiency policy;Emissions from transport have not been declining despite improvements in engine efficiency and although electric vehicle charge point numbers are increasing, the pace needs to pick up to enable a transition to electric vehicles in the 2020s and 2030s;Despite increased government funding, there remains a continued risk of flooding to more than five million properties in England – including more than three million at risk of surface water flooding – and flood resilience is the area commanding lowest public confidence in the Commission’s social research;While the number of serious pollution incidents caused by water companies has decreased from 2002, serious pollution incidents from water and sewerage have plateaued since 2014 at an unacceptably high level;Overall recycling rates have also plateaued and greenhouse gas emissions from waste have begun to rise since 2014 due to incineration for energy generation;While the public are largely satisfied with national roads overall, there are wide variations on rail performance, public concern over the condition of local roads is high and urban transport connectivity is poor in many places;A continuing reliance on private cars means congestion has a big impact on travel within city regions, particularly at peak times, while in many instances driving remains a quicker option than public transport for travel both within and between cities.

The nine projects set out in the baseline report address three strategic themes the Commission has decided will frame the second National Infrastructure Assessment: reaching net zero, reducing environmental impacts and building resilience to climate change, and helping level up communities across the UK.

The Assessment will set out costed policy recommendations to government over the next 10 – 30 years. It will explicitly consider the affordability of the required investment and how costs and savings will be spread across different groups in society and between consumers and taxpayers.

The first Assessment, published in 2018, led to government publishing the UK’s first ever National Infrastructure Strategy, which committed to implementing the majority of the Commission’s recommendations including the creation of the UK Infrastructure Bank.

Sir John Armitt, Chair of the Commission, said the three strategic themes “each pose urgent and wide ranging questions. Each draw broad political and public support for their end goal. Each, however, offer few quick wins or cheap fixes.”

He added: “We will now embark on this work – informed by input and insight from industry, political leaders, representative bodies, other organisations across the country and the public – and formulate policy recommendations to put forward to government.”

A Call for Evidence process has been launched, with interested stakeholders invited to submit data to the Commission to inform work on the topics it has identified. The Commission will also undertake sector events, regional visits and social research as it develops its recommendations.

It was also announced that the upper end of the ‘fiscal remit’ within which the Commission must formulate its recommendations has been lifted from 1.2% of GDP a year to 1.3% of GDP – potentially representing billions of pounds in additional investment in infrastructure over the long term.