What happened
A fencing and land services company in Ripon has been fined after one of its employees suffered spinal fractures when he fell from a ladder, according to the HSE Media Centre.
The 23-year-old was working for Metcalfe Fencing Contractors Ltd at a site in North Tyneside on 10 December 2024. He was erecting a four-metre-tall, 265-metre-long section of acoustic fencing between the busy A19 near Holystone and a housing estate.
According to the HSE, the work was planned in a way that required a ladder on uneven, muddy ground, while an excavator lifted fence panels over the head of the operator on the ladder. The excavator slings became tangled in the ladder during the lift, causing it to tip. The employee fell approximately two metres to the ground.
An HSE investigation found the company "failed to properly plan the lifting operation and the work at height activities." Metcalfe Fencing Contractors Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £22,000 with £5,327 in costs at South Tyneside Magistrates Court on 29 September 2026.
HSE inspector Matthew Dundas said the incident "was wholly avoidable" and that remote release clamps and tag-lines could have removed the need to work on a ladder at all.
Why it matters to contractors
This one hurts because it's so ordinary. Fencing is bread-and-butter work, and almost every contractor has at some point steadied a panel from a ladder while plant did the lifting. That familiarity is exactly the trap. Falls from height remain the leading cause of workplace death and injury, and the HSE's message here is that planning — not kit alone — is what fails people.
Two things went wrong together: the lifting operation and the work at height. Neither was properly planned. When you combine moving plant, slings, a ladder and soft ground, you've created a single point of failure where one snag tips the whole job over. The inspector's point about remote release clamps and tag-lines matters because those controls remove the operator from under the load entirely. That's the hierarchy in action — eliminate the need to work at height before you reach for a ladder.
What to check on your site
- Is there a lift plan? Any lift using an excavator or telehandler to move panels, beams or loads needs a proper lifting plan under LOLER — not a verbal "you grab that end".
- Can you eliminate the ladder? Ask first whether work at height can be designed out. Tag-lines, remote release clamps and ground-level guiding should come before "someone goes up".
- Nobody under a suspended load. If an operator has to guide a panel over their head, that's a red flag — tag-lines keep hands and heads clear.
- Ground conditions. Uneven, muddy ground makes both ladders and plant unstable. Assess it before, not after.
- Is the method actually written down? A RAMS that pairs the lift with the height work, with controls the crew has read and signed.
- Have you briefed it? A toolbox talk turns a document into something the crew on the ground actually knows.
Which SafetyPod documents help
If you're running fencing, access or lifting work, these templates give you a professional starting point to adapt to your site:
- The Scaffolder Risk Assessment Pack covers working at height, access equipment and MEWPs — directly relevant to access-trade fencing work.
- The RAMS & Permits Bundle gives you method statement and permit templates to plan high-risk lifts and height work together.
- Browse task-specific risk assessments for work at height and lifting operations.
- Not sure what you need? The free method statement guide explains how to write one that covers both the lift and the height activity.
These are editable templates you adapt to your actual site and method — they support your planning, they don't do the planning for you, and no document makes anyone compliant on its own.
The takeaway
A two-metre fall put a young man in hospital with spinal fractures and cost his employer over £27,000. The controls that would have prevented it weren't expensive — they were a plan and a couple of bits of kit. Plan the lift. Plan the height work. Keep people out from under the load.
Get your height and lifting paperwork sorted before the next job. Browse the access-trade pack or the full document library and download instantly.