Day 168 - 03 Oct 95 - Page 42
1 maintenance log?
2 A. Service history file.
3
4 Q. Service history file. Why did it take 10 months to put an
5 effective RCD system in?
6 A. I have no idea. I am not an electrical engineer. I
7 have no idea. We were told by Clayton that there were
8 problems with the design of the building for a start
9 because it used to be a timber warehouse. There were
10 problem with the siting of the fuse boxes themselves, so
11 they re-sited them, I think it was, in three different
12 places before they came to a final decision, and there were
13 problems because, basically, the cables had to run up
14 through the building.
15
16 Q. You have said in your statement: "New guidelines have
17 recently been issued by the Company on the removal of RCD
18 cover". What is that about?
19 A. Well, following the completion of the RCD roll out(?),
20 the Company issued guidelines, I believe it was Frank
21 Stanton issued the guidelines for our region, insisting
22 that under no circumstances must the main fuse be removed;
23 the idea behind that being because all the systems now
24 worked properly there had to be a fault for the system to
25 fail.
26
27 Q. Wait a minute, this guideline is a national guideline, is
28 it?
29 A. We received a memo from Frank Stanton for the Midlands
30 region. Whether that was a national guideline or not,
31 I cannot say, but he definitely sent a memo to his 140
32 stores, or whatever they are.
33
34 Q. He said that under no circumstances should they ---
35 A. Now be removed.
36
37 Q. -- trip out, remove the trip switch for RCDs?
38 A. That is right.
39
40 Q. Even if, as you claim, you know, the equipment was checked
41 one by one and all that kind of stuff, that was not allowed
42 by the Company?
43 A. No. What would happen is if you had a problem -- if
44 the RCD went down, you would then unplug all the equipment
45 that was relevant to that RCD unit, because it is now
46 divided into units -- we used to just have one thing
47 covering the whole store; it is now divided into specific
48 units, like grills, friers, fry stations etc. -- you then
49 unplug the equipment, go upstairs, turn the RCD back on and
50 plug the equipment back in one by one, see which piece of
51 equipment caused the problem.
52
53 If you then got to the position where the RCD still came
54 straight back on again, you would have to record it and
55 phone up the relevant company, but that is extremely rare
56 now because that would indicate a problem with the RCD. If
57 you then plug the piece of equipment back in and the grill
58 did not work, then you do not use that grill.
59
60 The situation he is referring to is the one where the RCD
