Survey raises more safety fears (From Milford Mercury)

Survey raises more safety fears

2:30pm Friday 10th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

An alarming number of people living close to the South Hook LNG terminal say they do not know what to do in the case of an emergency on site.

And over three-quarters cannot hear the COMAH alarm which could warn them of imminent danger, according to a survey by LNG safety campaign group, Safe Haven.

The group has gathered responses from around 180 households in the area, although they admit some homes proved impossible to contact.

Of the replies, 76% indicated that they could not hear the COMAH alarm and 89% replied that nobody had checked if they could hear it.

Eighty-four per cent responded that they had never seen a risk assessment showing the risks of the LNG terminal to their family and property, and only 30% said that they knew what to do in the event of a major LNG incident.

Gordon Maine, of Safe Haven, said most people still couldn’t hear the COMAH alarms.

“This points to a potentially catastrophic failure on the part of the health and safety executive and the environment agency who have signed off the alarm as working,” he said.

“Just as crucially, no-one, apart from Safe Haven volunteers, has asked people if they could hear the alarm. So how was it passed?”

A South Hook spokesman said “all appropriate planning, consultations and assessments” had been completed for the site.

“Before the terminal became operational, back in January this year, we prepared a package detailing the safety information and instructions to be followed in the highly unlikely event that the COMAH alarms would be sounded.

“At the same time of the distribution of the packs, we set up a free phone number for local residents to call if they needed more information or wanted to hear the sound of the COMAH and all-clear alarms. This free phone number is still available and is 0800 046 34 70.”

“We are pleased to confirm that we have carried out all the appropriate planning and consultation and assessments to get us to a world-class terminal start-up.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)