Ed Thomas Discusses Woman Who Died After Ceiling Collapse At Pontins On BBC Breakfast [20.03.2024]

now from its iconic blue coat entertainers to its affordable prices pontins has long been a desirable destination for UK holiday makers it was founded in 1946 at its height had 30 different destination sites across the UK but it's a shadow of that today the business really struggled through the 90s and 2000s as cheap European holidays became more readily available and pontins was saved from Administration in 2011 by britania hotels but by that time only six sites were left and in the last few months another three have closed at cambas Southport and pisatin and the last remaining sites are at Sand Bay in Somerset and pakefield in suffk and at Breen Sands which is currently closed for 3 years and it was at that site back in 2019 that holiday maker Wendy Jones died after an air conditioning duct fell on her her family say they are still waiting for answers about what happened that day pin's owners britania hotels have described it as an unfortunate accident and they do not consider themselves at fault but now some former staff have told the BBC about concerns they raised about the ceiling before it collapsed here's our special correspondent Ed Thomas I spent my mom's last birthday in an intensive care [Music] unit with her slipping in and out of Consciousness as they tried to stabilize [Music] her it was all taken away because of that ceiling falling on her just gone in an instant [Applause] February 2019 there chaos inside ponon Breen Sals an air conditioning DCT has fallen on to [Music] guests crushing Wendy Jones she never recovered this is Mom with uh Dexter and Alice my My Two children see how happy she is um just those arms were made for hugging grandkids it's more than four years since Wendy [Music] died because of the impact of the ceiling falling on her M punched along and had fractured ribs fractured colone ephemeral break before she died Wendy spent six months in hospital she never managed to come home from holiday police told us a postmortem examination found a clear link between Wendy's death and the injuries she sustained at ponon one of the saddest things that I've experienced was Mom waking up saying who are you cuz you didn't recognize who I was the BBC filmed on the night of the collapse and spoke to guests I was in there last night and I was sitting with my wife and my children and she looked up above and she see that the the the roof wasn't right it was bowed in the fire service said 40 m of structural ducting and ceiling sections collapsed on the floor you can see the Fallen air conditioning duct insulation boards are packed around it some were later scattered around ponon Wendy was crushed along with her Mobility Scooter if your mom was here now what would she be saying to you that's part of why I'm talking to you she say get Justice for the first time we can reveal safety concerns were raised inside pontins my biggest Fe was would collapse eventually H due to the sh you with MC fer was a general manager at ponon Breen Sands in late 2015 he witnessed these insulation boards being placed on the ceiling an air conditioning duct some of them are stuck four five High when he asked me to sign it off I refused to MC thenen says he demanded an inspection of the work I don't think the roof could ever could sustain that weight we've obtained a copy of that 2016 independent surveyance report Mick asked for and showed it to him exective summary the recent installation has not been safely or adequately installed which could result in a collapse of the ceiling the report however also stated it was not assessing safe load limits of the ceiling who received that report head office was satisfactory remedial work carried out while you were there no no no what was your concern uh eventual collapse ponton owners a company called britania Jinky Jersey disp mixed version of events it said the insulation was undertaken in 2015 by a specialist contractor in reference to the surveyor report branna said the findings related solely to the ceiling grid over the dance floor and the only concerns regarding the ventilation duct were that the rock wall installed was unsightly additional ceiling supports it added were installed by the contractor and a separate 2017 Engineers reports raised no concerns in relation to the work and no safety issues were raised to any senior manager prior to the [Music] collapse it's devastating watching that this has been on my mind since it collapsed it's very very sad she you know she came to Pon she didn't go home again in response to our investigation and for the first time time Britannia hotels has given its version of why the ventilation duct collapsed it says some internal fixings which could not be seen failed the death of Wendy Jones britania said was an unfortunate accident that could not have been predicted I don't like the word accident to describe this situation um I never have never sat comfortably with it Avon and Somerset police said it was open-minded about the cause of the ducting collapse and are continuing to look into the death of Wendy Jones has anybody said sorry to you and picked up the phone no they've not reached out to see how we are what's going on what happened that night and they could have they could have shown some humility some decency some Humanity well Ed is here in the studio with us now it interesting isn't it you know five years on since the death of Wendy Jones it's really difficult to imagine what her family has been through in that time yeah completely unimaginable Wendy was the matriarch of this family she was the one everybody went to these the ringer up if they needed advice or help and they were all there on a family holiday and this happened 40 m of air conditioning duct Falls onto Wendy and she never leaves hospital she was crushed and and never recovered and James as you've been listening to has been pushing for years for answers the tiniest bits of detail to what happened to his mom he's been speaking to medical professionals solicitors to the police but it's taken until now for britania to give its version of um its account as to what happened here they say it was these internal fixings that became loose and they could not be seen on visible inspections but police are keeping an open mind they are still investigating what happened here but as you heard britania Hotel say they've cooperated fully with the police they are clear this was an accident and they say it's not been appropriate to engage with Wendy Jones's family during this investigation and separate to to what happened to Wendy you've been investigating other allegations of of neglect within the wider business talk us through what you found yes so we've um spoken to nine former and current members of staff at pontins and brania hotels these were senior people with years of experience within the company and what they told us that their concerns their worries over issues like safety were not addressed they say they were ignored and they've sent in more than 70 photos from two pontins uh sites um you might be able to see some of the photos at pontin Southport pictures taken before it closed uh showed mold in Chalet broken doors and balconies and um uh railings with missing or rusting rails so they said these were serious concerns and they wanted them to be addressed in a statement to us brania hotels said they're committed to ensuring the public have a safe enjoyable visit to all the parks and hotels they own and they're continuously improving their health and safety and and over the last couple of years this is actually a company that's had government money yes so we've carried out analysis and sent out Freedom of Information requests to local Authority and our analysis shows that a number of britania hotels have been unavailable to book um over the past couple of years and we understand they've been um subcontracted to become Asylum Seeker hotels and we also carried out our information requests and 20 local authorities are using branna hotels properties uh for temporary accommodation so this is housing one of the most vulnerable people um in our society today and we spoke to the department for culture media and sports and we got a statement from them and they described our wider investigation as deeply concerning and they say everybody who goes on holiday in the UK deserves to have a safe and happy time Ed thank you very much indeed uh to you and the team for that uh and you can watch Ed's full investigation it's on BBC I player now you just search for pontins rundown and ruined that's the name of the documentary and it's there available to watch right now