{"id":7416,"date":"2025-08-27T07:46:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/?p=7416"},"modified":"2025-08-27T07:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:46:37","slug":"groundworks-boss-wins-payout-over-gagging-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/groundworks-boss-wins-payout-over-gagging-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundworks boss wins payout over gagging order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A groundworks boss has been awarded more than \u00a3500,000 in damages after a house builder tried to silence him after he raised concerns about asbestos on sites.<\/p>\n<p>Martin McGowan took legal action against Scottish house builder Springfield Properties.<\/p>\n<p>The Court of Session heard that McGowan worked as a subcontractor for Springfield employing up to 70 people on their projects.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-mpu ad-mpu-inline\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\"><a data-ad-id=\"474739\" href=\"http:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/themes\/constructionenquirer\/adclick.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrilliantideasltd.co.uk%2Falimats%2F%3Futm_source%3Dconstruction-enquirer%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_campaign%3Dconstructionenq-ads\" target=\"_blank\" onclick=\"track_ad_click(this);\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/6507-BI---Alimats-MPU---Constuction-Enquirer_01_s2.gif\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Both sides fell out in 2016 when McGowan raised concerns about asbestos and a lack of PPE for his staff on a number of sites.<\/p>\n<p>Springfield responded by obtaining an interim court order to prevent McGowan speaking publicly about the asbestos.<\/p>\n<p>The order was eventually lifted in 2021 after Springfield was fined \u00a310,000 for Health and Safety offences involving asbestos at a site in East Dunbartonshire.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-mpu ad-mpu-inline\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\"><a data-ad-id=\"493441\" href=\"http:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/themes\/constructionenquirer\/adclick.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dsmcls.co.uk%2F%3Futm_source%3Dconstruction-enquirer%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_campaign%3Dconstructionenq-ads\" target=\"_blank\" onclick=\"track_ad_click(this);\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSM LOOPER.GIF\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>McGowan said the gagging order hit his reputation and led to him losing contracts.<\/p>\n<p>The Court of Session ruled in his favour and awarded McGowan \u00a3558,033.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-mpu ad-mpu-inline\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\"><a data-ad-id=\"478038\" href=\"http:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/themes\/constructionenquirer\/adclick.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.creaghconcrete.co.uk%2F%3Futm_source%3Dconstruction-enquirer%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_campaign%3Dconstructionenq-ads\" target=\"_blank\" onclick=\"track_ad_click(this);\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CE_Creagh.gif\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-mpu ad-mpu-inline\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\"><a data-ad-id=\"124439\" href=\"http:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/themes\/constructionenquirer\/adclick.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hudsoncontract.co.uk%2Fhudson-freelance%2F%3Futm_source%3Dconstruction-enquirer%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_campaign%3Dconstructionenq-ads\" target=\"_blank\" onclick=\"track_ad_click(this);\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructionenquirer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/KCD043_MPU_Freelance_555x400px_Opt1_v1b.gif\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>from Construction Enquirer https:\/\/ift.tt\/WsK9hiU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A groundworks boss has been awarded more than \u00a3500,000 in damages after a house builder tried to silence him after he raised concerns about asbestos on sites. Martin McGowan took legal action against Scottish house builder Springfield Properties. The Court of Session heard that McGowan worked as a subcontractor for Springfield employing up to 70 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-7416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-construction-enquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7417,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions\/7417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}