Is anyone responsible for health and safety in Mayo?

In theory, it sounds like a straightforward question but one Mayo councillor says it is hard to tell who is responsible when something goes wrong at the Quay, the greenway and the boat stand in Westport?

A Mayo councillor says ordinary people would struggle to find out who is responsible for keeping the public safe in the county.

This follows Mayo County Council’s reply to his motion at the monthly meeting, which said no single law makes the local council responsible for public safety everywhere.

Cllr Peter Flynn had asked Mayo County Council to name the senior staff and members who are legally responsible for health and safety and for public safety across the county and in each Municipal District.

His motion covered things like roads, cycle lanes, footpaths, car parks, tourism sites, dangerous buildings and dangerous places. He also asked the Council to say which laws, rules or official orders give out these duties, and how the Council makes sure the rules are followed and that people can be held to account.

The Council’s response

The Council’s written reply split safety into two types: safety at work, and safety of the public.

Safety at work is covered by a law called the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The Council looks after this through a written plan called the Safety Statement, a Safety Management System, and the managers who run each team.

The Chief Executive has overall responsibility. The Safety Statement lists the duties of everyone, from directors and senior engineers to supervisors and all staff.

Under the Chief Executive’s Delegation Orders (official documents that hand certain jobs to certain people), the Director of Corporate Services has a role in managing safety at work, and each Director of Service is responsible for safety in their own area of work.

On public safety, the reply said there is no single law that makes a local council generally responsible for the safety of the public across the whole county. Instead, any role it has comes from specific jobs the law gives it. These include roads and transport, housing, community safety, licensing events, building control, fire services, emergency planning, winter road maintenance, civil defence, protecting the environment and water safety.

Delegation Orders are in place for each Director of Service, each Head of Municipal District, the Head of Housing, and the Head of Environment, Climate Change and Agriculture. Some jobs may have a named officer in charge. All staff who deliver, manage, inspect and maintain services and public spaces also share a general responsibility.

The Council finished by saying that responsibility for public safety comes either from specific legal jobs or from the Council owning, controlling, running or maintaining a place or structure. If someone else owns, controls or runs it, that person or group is mainly responsible.

Chief Executive Kevin Kelly said there is a difference between being liable (legally to blame), being responsible, and simply taking action. “To me, that’s a completely different thing to having a scenario that requires attention and then addressing,” he said, talking about whether an individual could be held liable.

Cllr Flynn said he doubted a member of the public could read the reply and work out who is responsible. He said he had read the Delegation Orders and thought the responsible person was either the director or the head of the Municipal District, but could not be completely sure. “I think that’s where the difficulty arises,” he said. He welcomed Mr Kelly saying that responsibility sits at Municipal District level, adding that “we can take it from there.”

Mr Kelly repeated that the question had been about legal responsibility, and that no law names one particular person for public safety. But he said, “as a local authority, we have an interest in ensuring that we take action on issues which contain a risk.”

Areas of concern

Cllr Flynn also raised worries about three particular places in Westport.

He shared photos with the Westport-Belmullet MD that he said show ongoing safety problems. This came after a Municipal District meeting, where a report was requested for the October meeting.

• The Quay: He said the owner of some inflatables (such as bouncy castles) has taken up a large part of the green area without permission, without a licence, and without protecting the Council from blame if something goes wrong. He said vehicles were parked on the grass but no fine were issued.
• The greenway from Pinewoods to Lidl: He said Tourism and the Regional Development Officer had made clear that this route is the Municipal District’s responsibility. He said signs, a chicane (a bend in the path that slows cyclists down) and a non-slip surface were urgently needed “before someone is seriously injured.”
• The boat stand area: He said the public can walk freely around it, with a path inside the wall, and he guessed that nobody controls the Council-owned area. He said that anywhere else in town, the Council would insist on a licence, proof of insurance and protection for the Council.

In a letter, Cllr Flynn addressed the Head of the Westport-Belmullet Municipal District as the person responsible for risk management and public safety. He said he hoped the information would make the safety worries clear to the public at all three places.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme