17/7/2008Plant boss denies gas supply blame
A FACTORY boss quizzed over the Maryhill blast said he was not directly concerned with decisions taken over the plant’s gas supply.
Nine people died when leaking pipes caused an explosion at the ICL Plastics factory in Glasgow in May 2004.
Company chairman Campbell Downie, 73, began giving evidence on day nine of a public inquiry into the blast.
Mr Downie, a non-executive chairman who went into semi-retirement in 1995, said he was not involved in decisions regarding the supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas to a factory oven.
Inquiry counsel, Roy Martin QC, asked him: “Would you be prepared to accept as a group chairman, particularly with reference to LPG, that you were to some extent in the position to make or control the decisions in question?”
Mr Downie replied: “Decisions that were taken with regard to LPG were not referred to me.”
Mr Martin read from the statement of factory manager William Masterton, which said there was a “pecking order” in ICL Plastics with Mr Downie at the top.
The chairman was shown a series of memos between him and ICL manager Frank Stott from the 1980s which had been salvaged from the rubble of the factory.
In them they discussed recommendations made by the Health and Safety Executive which requested the company make changes to its bulk storage of LPG, including the installation of a water cooling system.
Mr Stott wrote on August 18, 1988: “I have taken the precaution of securing information on the cost of the two alternatives which we may be faced with.”
Mr Downie responded five days later: “I am not unduly concerned with the Factory Inspectors’ displeasure and believe we have complied with historic requirements, generally adopted by other users who do not seem to suffer our local officials’ concern.”
The explosion was caused when a build-up of leaked LPG in the basement of the factory ignited.
The inquiry, before Lord Gill, continues.
Nine people died when leaking pipes caused an explosion at the ICL Plastics factory in Glasgow in May 2004.
Company chairman Campbell Downie, 73, began giving evidence on day nine of a public inquiry into the blast.
Mr Downie, a non-executive chairman who went into semi-retirement in 1995, said he was not involved in decisions regarding the supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas to a factory oven.
Inquiry counsel, Roy Martin QC, asked him: “Would you be prepared to accept as a group chairman, particularly with reference to LPG, that you were to some extent in the position to make or control the decisions in question?”
Mr Downie replied: “Decisions that were taken with regard to LPG were not referred to me.”
Mr Martin read from the statement of factory manager William Masterton, which said there was a “pecking order” in ICL Plastics with Mr Downie at the top.
The chairman was shown a series of memos between him and ICL manager Frank Stott from the 1980s which had been salvaged from the rubble of the factory.
In them they discussed recommendations made by the Health and Safety Executive which requested the company make changes to its bulk storage of LPG, including the installation of a water cooling system.
Mr Stott wrote on August 18, 1988: “I have taken the precaution of securing information on the cost of the two alternatives which we may be faced with.”
Mr Downie responded five days later: “I am not unduly concerned with the Factory Inspectors’ displeasure and believe we have complied with historic requirements, generally adopted by other users who do not seem to suffer our local officials’ concern.”
The explosion was caused when a build-up of leaked LPG in the basement of the factory ignited.
The inquiry, before Lord Gill, continues.