Nightclub owners fined GBP 90,000 in asbestos case

Published on Fri 8 Dec 2006

Towering Leisure, the company that owns the Atlantis Arena Complex in Great Yarmouth, have been fined GBP 90,000 for failing to sufficiently protect the health of staff and visitors and three breaches of the Control of Asbestos regulations.

The owners of the Atlantis Arena Complex were warned that asbestos was present and presented a danger to the public in 2004, but when inspectors returned in 2005 the asbestos was still present. This was despite claims that efforts had been made to safely remove the asbestos. In that time it is estimated that as many as 70,000 people had passed through the Complex.

Presiding Recorder Guy Ayres said,

"The directors received a comprehensive report that described some areas as being high risk. It seems to me that having read the report they made a conscious decision to carry on operating the nightclub."