Health & Safety Training Cheshire
Welcome to Oakmere Safety Consultancy. Based in Cheshire, we pride ourselves on offering professional health and saftey training and consultancy services to a wide range of industry sectors. We have helped many small Companies to grow by winning those all important contracts.
We provide a complete Approved Contractor service for Forecourt Safe, Safe Contractor and CHAS from the initial application to approved status, we will provide you with all the documentation required to meet the criteria. See the full list of health and safety consultant services available.
John Crouchley the Managing Director is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner and is also an IOSH registered Consultant with many years of experience in Engineering, Quarrying and Construction. He is a PASMA Approved trainer for mobile access towers and is approved to deliver IOSH, NEBOSH and SPA (UKPIA) health & satety training courses. See the full list of health and safety training courses available.
Firm fined £185k after worker crushed by truck
A major construction company has been fined £185,000 for failing to separate vehicles from pedestrians on a building site in Lancashire.
Carillion JM Ltd, which is part of the multinational Carillion plc group, was the principal contractor for the construction of Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale. On 11 November 2008, Michael Gresty was helping to build a roadway around a large pond at the site. He was using a petrol-driven saw to cut plastic blocks, so they could be used to form the road.The saw ran out of petrol and Mr Gresty began walking towards colleagues, who were working on the other side of the pond, to ask if they had any spare fuel. While he was making his way across the site, he was run over by a reversing tipper truck. He sustained multiple fractures, a damaged left kidney, and has had a pin put inserted in his right knee. He has subsequently lost one inch in height, and has been unable to return to work owing to his injuries.
Worker set alight in dust explosion
A Derbyshire technology company failed to put in place suitable control measures to protect employees working with flammable substances.
On 17 October 2007, Paul Gothard, 54, was working as a coating operative at Chromalloy UK Ltd’s factory in Alfreton, Derbyshire. He was loading aluminium treatment powders into an electric power blender, when there was an explosion, and he was hit by a fireball.He had been using a hose as a vacuum to load the powder into the machine, and it is thought that the powder was ignited by a discharge of static electricity. Mr Gothard’s clothing was set on fire and he suffered burns to his hands, arms, and face. He has been unable to return to work, owing to his injuries.
The HSE’s investigation discovered that the hose, which was being used as a vacuum, was not the original one that was supplied with the machine, and did not have a conductive metal strip to prevent static charges being released. Inspectors also learned that workers had reported receiving static shocks from the hose but nothing had been done to address these concerns.
HSE inspector Noelle Walker said: “Mr Gothard suffered serious burns in this incident and he’s been left with some permanent lack of function in his hand.
“Chromalloy failed to carry out assessments and control risks as required in relation to powdered aluminium, which is an explosive dust.”
Machine’s guard had been disabled
A major food manufacturing company put workers at risk by allowing employees to operate an unguarded machine.
Bakkavör Foods Ltd, which operates three subsidiaries in the UK, appeared at Grantham Magistrates’ Court on 18 February and pleaded guilty to breaching reg. 11(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. It was fined £3000 and ordered to pay full costs of £2000.Magistrates heard that the incident took place on 24 August 2008 at the Bakkavör Bourne Salads factory in Bourne, Lincolnshire. One of the firm’s employees crushed his hand while assisting colleagues in clearing a blockage in a cabbage washing line. The worker reached inside the screw conveyor, which is used to slice cabbages, to clear several cabbages that were blocking the machine.
The device had been fitted with a guard in place to prevent access to the conveyor, but this had been disabled. The machine had not been isolated and when the worker removed the blockage, the conveyor re-started and crushed his hand.
HSE inspector Jo Anderson said: “Bakkavör is a huge company, which employs 20,000 worldwide and 2500 in the UK alone. It is often assumed companies of this size adhere to health and safety policies at all times.
“In this instance, Bakkavör failed to efficiently maintain the protective guards in place to prevent employees accessing dangerous parts of the factory’s machinery.
“The employee suffered the injury while working a night shift and this unfortunate incident sends out a clear message on the importance of companies maintaining the same standard of care to employees on a night shift as on a day shift.”
