Bosley Wood Treatment director in court

A company director has denied responsibility for the deaths of four employees in the Bosley mill explosion.

At Stockport Magistrates’ Court, George Boden, 64, denied four counts of manslaughter by gross negligence over the blast at Bosley Wood Treatment in July 2015 when Derek Moore, Dorothy Bailey, Jason Shingler and William Barks were killed at Wood Flour Mills.

Managers Peter Shingler, 56, and Phil Smith, 58, denied a health and safety charge.

A four-storey building was destroyed in the blast and large fires broke out at the mill on Tunstall Road shortly after 09:00 on 17 July.

Firefighters did not leave the site of the explosion for more than a month.

As well as the employees who died at the site, a number were injured as the mill was reduced to rubble.

Mr Boden, of Church Road, Stockport, Mr Shingler, of Turnstall Road, Bosley, and Mr Smith, of Raglan Road, Macclesfield, were bailed to appear at Chester Crown Court on 3 January 2020.

Mr Shingler and Mr Smith both denied breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974.