Maidenhead & Windsor

People working in Maidenhead builders’ merchants will be the focus of a new health and safety initiative launched by environmental health officers in the Maidenhead Royal Borough, together with colleagues from the five other Berkshire local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive.

Part of the Health and Safety Commission’s Fit3 programme (Fit for Work, Fit for Life and Fit for Tomorrow), the aim is to target the top four causes of accidents and injuries resulting in more than three days off work:

* slips trips and falls
* workplace transport
* falls from heights and
* manual handling.

Over the next few weeks environmental health officers across Berkshire will visit around 40 builders’ merchants, looking out for hazards relating in these four main accident areas:

* Slips, trips and falls: poor/damaged shop floor and yard surfaces, trailing cables, items of stock left on stairs and in aisles on shop floors, in warehouses and outside adjacent to stacks of bricks, blocks and timber etc
* Workplace transport: forklift trucks driven recklessly or overturning, employees or loads falling from vehicles, employees or customers struck by vehicles, unsatisfactory traffic routes
* Falls from heights: access to racking, mezzanine levels, high level maintenance tasks, use of ladders and access cages on fork lift trucks
* Manual handling: stock stored in inappropriate places, awkward loads, stock which is too heavy for employees to lift alone, lack of provision or use of manual handling aids (trolleys etc).

Tabitha Hosey, Maidenhead environmental health team leader commercial services, explained: “This is a good opportunity for the Health and Safety Executive and councils to work in partnership to carry out dual inspections. While we in local authorities are responsible for enforcement on the premises, most off-site deliveries come under the remit of the Health and Safety Executive.

“We will be contacting builders’ merchants ahead of our visits and our findings will be set out in a written report which will be left with the manager. Where appropriate, employers will also be advised of any improvements that need to be made.”

The other local authorities involved are West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest and Slough.

For more information about the national FIT3 programme visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/plans/hscplans/0506/fitfor.htm

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead