Exposed mains power cable in Coire na Ciste November 2020 – imagine someone walking along this path in crampons in winter
“Health and Safety and customer service is what drives us at Cairn Gorm” so claimed Susan Smith, Interim Chief Executive at Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) in a video on 9th December (see here), a message repeated earlier in that same video by Colin Matthews their Operations Manager.
If that is the case why, after his post on Highland and Island Enterprise’s environmental neglect of the Ciste (see here), did it take several emails from Alan Brattey to get the exposed mains power cable covered up?
New warning signs – there were none before – and sandbags December 2020. Note the remains of former sandbags just behind the left hand sign
In an email response to Alan Brattey on 26th November, sent by a member of staff who has been generally been very helpful, HIE reported they had been in contact with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) on several occasions about the exposed power cable:
“Subject: RE: Mains Power Cable
Dear Mr Brattey
Thank you for email to Charlotte Wright [HIE Chief Executive] this morning about the exposed cable between the Ciste Building and West Wall Poma at Cairngorm. .
The cable is part of the SSEN ring main – HIE and CMSL have been in contact on a number of occasions with SSEN in relation to our concerns about sections which are either exposed or shallowly buried, and their planned replacement of the cable. Indeed, SSEN did an inspection of cable depths around 2 months ago. We have again made contact with them to advise them of the potential risk and we will follow up further with them on any actions required. CMSL are also fully aware of this specific concern and will take any necessary action.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Alan then followed this up with SSEN directly and, after a bit of swithering on their part, on 8th December received an email from them which explained they had put in place temporary safety measures:
“I can confirm that SSEN has now attended site to make the cable safe and install further sand bagging. In addition, signage has been erected to make walkers and others aware of the cable location. To help explain, sand bagging and signage are a temporary measure to ensure public safety and protect the cable. Due to the terrain in the area and the elements certain sections are more vulnerable to exposure.
This situation will be rectified by a project currently in design to replace the existing cable. The on-site works are scheduled commence in the Spring, subject to obtaining all relevant consents.”
So why did Alan, a member of the public, have so much more success getting this sorted than HIE/CMSL?
Health and safety since HIE bought back Cairngorm Mountain
HIE failed to monitor how Natural Retreats was managing health and safety at Cairn Gorm and was issued with no less than three improvement notices from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) soon after Cairngorm Mountain Ltd, as it was then called, went into administration in November 2018 . Mindful of the serious safety problems that had forced the funicular to close at the end of the summer (again a lack of effective monitoring), one of HIE’s first action was to appoint a temporary Health and Safety Manager to deal with the most pressing issues. They started reporting to the new Directors of HIE’s new company, CMSL, and the minutes of those meetings helps reveal what has happened since:
Extract from minute of CMSL Directors Meeting 19th March 2019
Note the reference to a new Health and Safety culture AND the need for the Chief Executive to communicate this internally and externally, hence perhaps Susan Smith’s recent video.
Extract from minute of CMSL Directors Meeting 10th May 2019
ICEO = Interim Chief Executive Officer
This shows that CMSL had conducted a risk assessment on the ring main 18 months ago.
Extract from minute of CMSL Directors Meeting 21st June 2019
All good news, everything apparently in order, including presumably the ring main.
Extract from minute of CMSL Directors Meeting18th November 2019
Yet more assurances to the CMSL Board that everything was in order and Health and Safety had greatly improved.
There was just one problem, it wasn’t true. A few weeks ago George Paton asked for a copy of the Risk Assessment of the ring main referred to at the May 2019 Board meeting. He received it at the beginning of December and it clearly there were significant risks from sections of cable that were not properly buried:
Obtained by George Paton through a Freedom of Information request
What is more the Risk Assessment shows the areas where the main problem were located:
The blue area is exactly where Alan Brattey took his photos this November. Whatever CMSL staff had or hadn’t reported to SSEN, the fact is they had allowed this problem to persist for 18 months, while at the same time claiming to their Board of Directors on at least two occasions that all the problems had been sorted. Besides the ring main, by November 2019 when the CMSL Board were told for the second time that all health and safety issues at Cairn Gorm had been addressed, the artworks above the Coire Cas car park were almost certainly already in a dangerous state (see here). In most organisations, were people to have misled their Board in this way, heads would roll.
In actual fact, the ring main had been exposed in places well before the risk assessment was conducted in May 2019:
These photos of sandbags were both taken in 2016, when Natural Retreats was in charge, although many of the hill staff are the same as they are now. In 2017, the Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust asked HIE what they intended to do about the section of the 11kv ring main cable which was exposed on the surface of the Sheiling piste (red area in map above). HIE did nothing to address that issue, hence why it appeared in the 2019 risk assessment, and it has taken the intervention of a member of the public to get anything done.
CMSL Directors need to see for themselves what is happening on the ground
You don’t have to walk far around Cairngorm Mountain to spot issues which, anywhere else, would be treated as a serious Health and Safety concern. These range from the obvious:
Bridge over the burn that runs down towards the Pump House on the lower Zig Zags known as chicken gully, so called as its less steep than the Cas gunbarrel
To the slightly less obvious:
Ruined fencing high on the Aonach Ridge, also known as Rita’s ridge, used by skiers and boarders to return to the Ciste Car Park
In cloud, a frequent occurrence on Cairn Gorm, these wires would be hidden from skiers and boarders and could cause a nasty accident.
To the even nastier:
Imagine a beginner sliding out of control and being impaled on one of these wires. When were these posts wires ever clad in protective matting?
There are currently six directors of Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd , all appointed by HIE (see here). One, Rachel Mackenzie, is currently employed by HIE, and another, Douglas Yule, is a former HIE employee. The Chair, Peter Mearns, is a retired chartered accountant and Andrew Burgess appears to have various commercial leisure interests. Bill Lobban is convener of Highland Council. The final Directorship is held by Burness Paul LLP, a legal firm, who should know about health and safety law, even if the other Directors don’t.
It is time that all got out and took a walk around the mountain instead of trusting what their senior management tell them.
1 Comment on “HIE’s Health and Safety record at Cairn Gorm”
Any manager/director who wants to have any credibility has to ‘walk the floor’. If you don’t know what the public/staff see and feel then you are a desk jockey and useless and have no respect from your staff. Even more so in an outdoor organisation. It would be interesting to know how often the 6 people mentioned in your article go walkabout. Maybe they want to reply and tell us often they do and if so how do people get away with saying things have been repaired when they have not.
Keep up the good work.
Any manager/director who wants to have any credibility has to ‘walk the floor’. If you don’t know what the public/staff see and feel then you are a desk jockey and useless and have no respect from your staff. Even more so in an outdoor organisation. It would be interesting to know how often the 6 people mentioned in your article go walkabout. Maybe they want to reply and tell us often they do and if so how do people get away with saying things have been repaired when they have not.
Keep up the good work.