Battersea Crane disaster

Justice for the bereaved familes and residents.

Security and safety of local residents.

The Health & Safety Executive to hold a full and immediate inspection of the crane disaster site.

An independent expert to be allowed to inspect the crane.

Wandsworth Council to hold a full public investigation into the disaster.

The code of Practice on Crane Safety to become law.

To keep the local shops open for the community.

On Tuesday 26th September 2006, two young men tragically lost their lives due to a crane collapse at a Barratts site on Thessally Road/Battersea Park Road. One young man was a crane driver, the other was Michael Alexa, the son of a local resident. Michael was innocently taking care of his car when the crane, which was approx. 34 years old, crashed down on top of him, after the crane driver had landed in the windscreen of a nearby car. For "safety" reasons, Michael Alexa was left at the site for five days before his body was removed. A nearby low rise block of flats was also badly damaged, resulting in the whole block being evacuated for at least a week. One end of the damaged block comprised of shops on the ground floor with flats directly above. The shops served the local community, which has a number of elderly members, a lot of who relied heavily on these shops. They have been closed ever since the disaster and the future of these shops is still not known.

The site previously housed John Milton Primary School, which was closed in August 2004, much to the anger of us parents and local residents. Protests were made and it was put to the Council that the main reason they wanted to close the school was because of the intended developement of Battersea Power Station, just across the road. We felt that the council were just looking to make a profit from selling the land, which would have been worthless without the plans for Battersea Power Station.

Since the crane disaster, no one has accepted any responsibility for the deaths of the two men. Not Barratts, whose building site it was and not Falcon Cranes, who were the suppliers of the cranes. In fact, although they were invited to a public meeting, on 25 October, Barratts and Falcon Cranes did not send anyone along to represent them. Wandsworth Council were also invited to attend (they did not), as it is felt that, since selling the land, and granting planning permission to Barratts, they have effectively washed their hands of the whole thing. Quite astonishing, we think, seeing as Barratts are building practically on top of an exisiting council housing estate, run by Wandsworth Council themselves. Already having made a large crack in Thessally Road, while setting the foundations, we feel that Barratts were in a rush to get the proposed "Luxury Apartments" built to meet a deadline given to prospective buyers. One of our aims is to stop Barratts building on the site and for them to give the land back to the exisiting tenants in the area. It had been thought, originally, that there was supposed to be affordable housing for local residents but that seems to have got lost somewhere. I only hope that, if Barrats DO go ahead and build, that they follow the code of practice for construction sites and make sure that everything is done to prevent a similar tragedy in the future. Also fulfill the practice of offering a percentage of those apartments as affordable housing, and that the flats don't sink into what is the marshland ground that they are being built on. Marshland that it has always been felt wasn't suitable for highrise buildings.

We are also quite astonished to learn that it is not law for crane inspections to be carried out by independent bodies and that the developers are actually allowed to use someone from within the company. Surely that's like me M.O.T'ing my own car!!!

This kind of incident is becoming increasingly common. We want to stamp it out so that more innocent people do not have to lose their lives for the sake of large companies making money.

For details of weekly BCDAG meetings and the Public meeting to be held on 29 November 2006, go here

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!

You can find out more by following the links below

http://www.hsenews.com/2006/10/16/battersea-crane-collapse-26-september-2006/

http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2006/10/16/52517/Barratt+gears+up+after+crane+collapse.html

http://www.ucatt.org.uk/ucatt_news.htm