DAWN’S BUILDING FRIGHT commando’ scaffolders

Safety bosses halt T V star’s

BUILDING work at Dawn French’s mansion was dramatically halted after a worker was spotted hanging from scaffolding 60ft above rocks.

Health and safety officials stepped in after a passer-by alerted them to the hair-raising scenes at the TV comic’s beachside home.

One worker in a white T-shirt and green combat trousers teetered perilously with legs stretched wide apart on scaffolding poles above the drop at Fowey, Cornwall.

The same worker – not wearing a helmet – then scrambled commando-style down the rig without ladders while Dawn, 56, sat on a nearby terrace.

Another hatless builder repeated the precarious balancing trick while buckets of mortar were lowered at the Vicar Of Dibley star’s gothic mansion.

One angry parent stormed up to the front gate after claiming material had fallen near his children play- ing on the rocks. The workers, who were reinforcing a wall on cliffs below the house, were ordered to stop by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

An eyewitness on the beach said: “The e builders were passing buckets to eachh other and stuff was falling out of them.

“A guy on the beach was going absolutelyy ballistic because something landed on n rocks near his children.

“He went round to the front gate and d tried ringing the bell for 10 minutes andd shouting through the gate.”

An HSE spokesman said: “A prohibitionn notice was issued against Heritage Cornwallll Ltd. The notice related to issues about ut access to the work area.

“They had to stop that part of work rk immediately until they put it right.

“The issue has been resolved to ourur satisfaction and the prohibition notice e has been revoked.”

Dawn bought the 40-room man- sion with ex-husband Lenny Henryy in 2006 for a reported £2.3million. She lives there with her new husband, charity boss Mark Bignell.

Spokesmen for Dawn and for Heritage Cornwall, based in Bodmin, declined to comment.