A DIRECTOR of a company which supplied machinery in which a young labourer was killed is to face charges under health and safety law.

Brian Foster, of Waste Equipment Services Ltd in Bamber Bridge, which supplied EW Cartons, Rishton, with the baling machine and conveyor, has been summoned to appear before Hyndburn magistrates on July 27, the Health and Safety Executive said today.

EW Cartons, a family-run recycling firm headed by Accrington Stanley FC chairman and owner Eric Whalley, has already been told that it will face charges under health and safety law by Hyndburn Borough Council, also on July 27. Earlier this year the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring manslaughter charges against representatives of either company following the death of 17-year-old factory worker Steven Donald.

Steven, from Clayton-le-Moors, died from multiple organ failure and crush injuries after he became trapped in a conveyor belt at EW Cartons Ltd in August 1998. An inquest jury last October decided that either involuntary manslaughter or gross negligence had taken place, and returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Coroner Michael Singleton told the jury that negligence, if found, could be on the part of EW Cartons Ltd, or an employee from Waste Equipment Ltd, of Bamber Bridge, which supplied and fitted the secondhand machine.

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive today said that the charge against the director of Waste Equipment was for failing to ensure that the baling machine and conveyor was "designed and constructed so that it would be safe at all times when being used by a person at work".

Mr Foster was said to be unavailable to comment on the matter.

Steven, a former pupil of Norden High School, Rishton, lived in York Close, Clayton-le-Moors with his mother Janette. She has since returned to Scotland, where Steven was born and where other family members live.