A SENIOR Island Energy manager told the company’s chief executive that “I don’t want to end up in the dock with you one day” during a clash over the failure to give suitable training to staff, the Royal Court has heard.
Giving evidence at the ongoing Haut du Mont trial resulting from the fatal gas explosion in December 2022, the company’s former head of network operations, James Cherry, said that he had been told “not to spend money on training” amid company cuts following the pandemic.
He added that he had shared his frustration that training recommendations he made three months before the explosion had not been approved at the time of the disaster in St Helier on 10 December 2022.
Mr Cherry said team leaders in Jersey should have been given Safe Control of Operations training, but that in reality he had been the only Jersey-based employee with this qualification for 2021 and large parts of 2022.
He admitted he was “annoyed” when moves were initiated about SCO training in late December 2022, more than two weeks after the incident at Haut du Mont in which nine people died at the scene, followed by a tenth victim in hospital two weeks later. This frustration was exacerbated because one of those who died was a close family friend, he added.
Three of Mr Cherry’s former colleagues – Neil Armstrong (58), Lee Ward (59) and John Wright (60) – are standing trial after pleading not guilty to ten counts of gross negligence manslaughter, while Island Energy is also on trial having denied two breaches of the health and safety law.
The court heard that after a safety issue relating to a tanker in December 2021, Mr Cherry had returned to work after a period of leave and discovered that no action was to be taken over the incident. As a result of this, and an expansion of his role that he felt was inappropriate, he said he had handed in his notice in early 2022.
He recounted a meeting with the utility company’s then-chief executive, Jo Cox, and another senior executive, where he had expressed his frustration that nothing had been done and said that he did not wish to end up in the dock with his two colleagues.
Mr Cherry said he had been due to leave the company in the middle of 2022, but was persuaded to stay on a month-by-month basis.
Asked by Advocate Olaf Blakeley, representing Mr Ward, if he regretted not having left the company at the end of his original notice period, he said: “A good friend of mine died [in the explosion] so yes – 1,000% I regret it.”
In his second day at the witness box, Mr Cherry, who worked for the company for 19 years, said he had been outside of the Island at the time of the explosion in order to attend a friend’s funeral. He said that he had been willing to take calls while he was away and had spoken to Mr Armstrong on the afternoon of Friday 9 December, when he was assured that work to reconnect supply to a group of customers, including the St Helier Yacht Club, was “in-hand”.
The court heard that Mr Cherry had been sent an update by text message on the Friday evening. He said he had seen the message but had not been in the “headspace” to consider it properly, or respond, because he was out for a meal in London, having earlier attended his friend’s funeral.
“There was no obligation for me to look at messages. I was out with my wife. I’d had a few drinks and then I woke up the next day and heard the news [about the explosion early on Saturday morning],” he said, adding that this included learning that a close family friend had been one of the victims.
Mr Cherry said there had been no formal handover ahead of him leaving Jersey on Wednesday 7 December, with the managing director of Island Energy also away, but that
Mr Armstrong would have known to escalate any concerns to the acting MD.
As part of his role, Mr Cherry said he had been expected to put forward recommendations for training, and that in September 2022 he had recommended that SCO training should be given, as the departure of the company’s technical training officer in late 2020 meant he was the only person with such accreditation.
Although SCO training was given to several members of staff in the Isle of Man in 2019, Mr Cherry said that a similar exercise had not been carried out in Jersey as a result of spending cuts during the Covid/lockdown period.
“We were told not to spend money on training and projects and there were discussions about cutting salaries,” he said. “We couldn’t raise purchase orders and were told we were not allowed to book anything.”
The court heard that during the pandemic the company had imposed 20% salary cuts on its employees and Mr Cherry had been unable to approve requests for new tools and equipment due to a “blanket ban” on spending.
Mr Cherry said he was annoyed by the fact that senior colleagues had not approved his request for a budget for training, although no specific objections had been expressed to him. He added that he had been told in late December by the company’s chief executive to book the training.
Representing Mr Armstrong, Advocate Rui Tremoceiro asked Mr Cherry about cuts to the utility company’s distribution workforce, which saw a reduction from 12 staff spread across six teams to eight employees in four teams. This could lead to challenging periods if some of the staff involved were absent through illness or otherwise not available to work.
Recruitment and retention was described as “a revolving door” by Mr Cherry, who added that a technician who had worked in liaising between head office and the field teams had left and not been replaced, removing a “layer of support” for staff. He added that there was “a lot of transition” at one stage, with three different chief executives within a short period of time.
“I found it frustrating that budgets [for training] were submitted but never carried out,” he said.
In the aftermath of the explosion, Mr Cherry said there had been a direction from the chief executive that SCO training should be carried out as soon as possible.
Several employees eventually received SCO training in February 2023, the court heard.
Mr Cherry was asked by Advocate Blakeley if he felt that, given the situation about training, leaving no other staff qualified to prepare “routine operation” assessments, and the lack of procedures, he thought that a tragic incident such as the explosion was only a matter of time. “Possibly, yes,” Mr Cherry said in response.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding. The trial continues.
