Two companies and two men are to face trial next year on health and safety charges brought after five workers died when a wall collapsed at a metal recycling plant.

The Health and Safety Executive is prosecuting Birmingham-based firms Ensco 10101 Ltd and Hawkeswood Metal Recycling Ltd after a long-running inquiry into the fatalities in the Nechells area of the city on July 7 2016.

Ensco 10101 is accused of failing to discharge a duty to a person other than an employee in July 2016, and failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees.

Hawkeswood Metal Recycling faces a charge alleging that it failed to ensure those not in its employment were not exposed to risks, and a second count relating to the safety of employees.

The companies, both of Riverside Works, Trevor Street, Nechells, indicated not guilty pleas to two charges each, through their barrister, during a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

Wayne Anthony Hawkeswood, 50, whose address was given in court documents as Riverside Works, appeared in court to plead not guilty to four alleged breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, including allegations that an “offence was committed with your consent or connivance or was attributable to your neglect”.

Graham John Woodhouse, 54, also of Riverside Works, denied four offences relating to his duties as a director or manager.

Five workers, all originally from the Gambia and Senegal, died when a concrete partition wall gave way.

Labourers Almamo Jammeh, 45, Ousmane Diaby, 39, Bangally Dukuray, 55, Saibo Sillah, 42, and 49-year-old Mahamadou Jagana were all pronounced dead at the scene after the wall and part of a stored pile of 263 tons of metal ingots collapsed.

A sixth man suffered serious injuries.