Gas workers ignored UK safety standards, court hears

Staff at Jersey's only gas company often liked to do things "the Jersey way" instead of following UK safety standards, a former manager at Island Energy has told the Royal Court.

Mark Wheeldon had worked for the company when an explosion occurred at Haut du Mont on 10 December 2022, killing 10 people.

Gas workers Neil Armstrong, John Wright and Lee Ward deny 10 counts of gross negligence manslaughter and Island Energy has pleaded not guilty in a combined health and safety case.

The residents who died were Peter Bowler, 72, Billy Marsden, 62, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, Ken Ralph, 72, Jane Ralph, 71, Romeu De Almeida, 67, Louise De Almeida, 64, Raymond Brown, 71, and Kathy McGinness, 73.

Wheeldon, who had worked in the gas industry for 45 years, told the court he worked to UK safety standards - as they were some of the "safest in the world", but often faced push back from local staff at Island Energy.

"If I turned up to do a safety audit and found something wrong they'd say 'that's the Jersey way' and I would say 'well, you will going forward cause that's how we do it in the UK'."

Wheeldon also told the court that some gas workers had not had safety training for 10 years before the explosion in 2022. He addedall those who needed it were all retrained after the incident.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard Armstrong had told senior workers that a pressure test, which ensures the pipes are tight and do not leak gas, had been done - but it later transpired that it had not been.

Wheeldon said the work done by those at the Commercial Buildings site, the road below the Haut du Mont flats, was "unsafe and wrong" and that it was "the golden rule" to do a pressure test.

"If they'd have just done the one thing, a pressure test, before they reconnected that pipe, we wouldn't be having this discussion now," he said.

Wheeldon told the court the men working at the site may not "have [had] the confidence" to speak up to Armstrong but they had "the competence" to do the work right.

"They chose not to follow procedures rather than being ignorant of them."

The trial continues.

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