Bosley Mill bosses 'may not have understood blast risk'

Bosses at a mill where four people died in a blast may not have understood the risk of a dust build up, a court heard.

A firm and its director are on trial over four deaths at Wood Flour Mills in Bosley, Cheshire, in July 2015.

Chester Nightingale Court heard that the mill's leadership were "trying to turn around a failing business", which had been bought by brothers in 2008.

Opening the defence, Dominic Kay QC said dust levels were "excessive" but questioned if defendants knew the risk.

"It's undeniable that those on site, including senior management, knew that from time to time the dust levels were excessive, unacceptably high," he said.

Wood Treatment Ltd - which ran the mill - has accepted this and pleaded guilty to a safety offence.

"But what is the evidence that those in charge recognised and really understood the risks that followed from dust levels being too high?," Mr Kay continued.

Prosecutors say there would have been no explosion if it was not for the build-up of wood dust.

Workers Derek Moore, Dorothy Bailey, Jason Shingler and Derek William Barks died in the blast shortly after arriving for work on 17 July 2015. Others were said in court to have received "horrendous injuries".

The body of Mr Shingler, a 38-year-old charge-hand, was never found in the destruction.

The remains of the mill's only cleaner Ms Bailey, 62; maintenance fitter Mr Barks, known as Will, 51; and mill worker Mr Moore, 62, were recovered in the days following the explosion.

On Tuesday, the court heard a report calling for urgent action over safety standards at the site, just months before, was largely ignored.

Director George Boden, 64, from Stockport, who denies four counts of gross negligence manslaughter, along with a health and safety offence, was accused of paying "lip-service" to the warning "at best".

On Wednesday, his defence lawyer, Simon Antrobus QC, asked jurors to consider how Mr Boden - who was appointed managing director in 2012, four years after he and his two brothers Charles and Wayne bought the business - may have been constrained by the limit of his knowledge, lack of qualifications or access to funds.

Mr Kay added that the management team were "spending money improving the business" but it was "a slow and expensive process" that he likened to turning an "oil tanker".

Operations manager Philip Smith, 58, of Raglan Road, Macclesfield and mill manager Peter Shingler, 56, of Tunstall Road, Bosley, each deny one health and safety offence.

The trial continues.

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