Samurai Scaffolder Attacker Suspect In Court

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A man who allegedly attacked and injured three people with a Samurai sword has appeared in court. Scaffolder Paul Qualey was arrested after an incident near the Sheerness clocktower early on New Year’s Day. The 25-year-old appeared at Sittingbourne Magistrates’ Court today charged with affray and possessing an offensive weapon. He withheld his plea and will next appear before the bench on March 9 for committal proceedings to crown court. Presiding magistrate Shelagh L’hermette set him a new curfew time, lasting from 10pm till 5am. He will be electronically tagged. The court heard he is accused of attacking three people – one a woman – with a short Samurai sword. Paramedics called to the scene about at 2.50am treated them for injuries which included cuts to their hands. Prosecuting counsel said one of the victims also had “serious cuts to his foot”. Defending, Pat Cuffe asked the magistrates to enter a change of address for Qualey, whose home was initially given as Wood Street, Sheerness, where he had been staying until recently. He has since been reunited with his partner and is living with her in nearby Beach Street. Mrs L’hermette accepted the new change of address while imposing the new curfew restrictions which will allow Qualey more flexibility with his work commitments. Mr Cuffe told magistrates: “Mr Qualey is highly thought of by his company.” He added: “We don’t accept the police version of events at all.” Source: Kent online

Fork-Lift Truck Crashes Down On Scaffolding In Wigan

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The scene at the construction site of the new swimming pool at Millgate in Wigan

THIS was the dramatic scene in Wigan town centre when a fork-lift truck toppled over and crashed into scaffolding. Miraculously, nobody was injured after a Pegasus rotating truck fell sideways from uneven ground onto the scaffolding of the South Life Centre site, where the new swimming pool complex is intended to be. An investigation has now been launched into what happened. Worried onlookers had gathered around Millgate when Morgan Sindall employees arrived to assess the damage, yesterday morning. One shopper said: “I first drove past and saw all these men looking at some machinery. “Then later on, I walked past again and there were a lot more men there, there might have been about 40 of them. They all seemed to be looking at this piece of machinery which I thought looked like a crane, it had fallen onto the scaffolding. “Lots of people who were walking past had gathered to see what all the commotion was about. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt, it looked quite dangerous.” Source: Wigantoday.net

3 Workers Fall Through Skylights Companies Prosecuted

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The HSE has prosecuted two companies after three workers fell through skylights on three separate occasions at an industrial unit in Warrington. The initial incident took place on 20 March 2007 at Bizspace Investment Ltd’s facility at the Craven Court industrial estate at Winwick Quay. A caretaker at the site was cleaning guttering on the roof when he fell through a fragile skylight, and suffered multiple broken ribs. Following the incident, one of his colleagues, having been sent to take photos of the scene, fell through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped without injury. The firm hired Anthony Massey, trading as Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, to repair the skylights. On 10 April 2007, one of Massey’s employees was carrying out the work without safety equipment when he, too, fell through a skylight. He sustained serious spinal injuries, which has left him paralysed from the waist down. HSE inspector Martin Heywood described his astonishment that three similar incidents were allowed to happen on three separate occasions. He said: “A man was sent on to a roof without safety equipment, despite two caretakers falling through skylights less than a month earlier. “As a result, the worker is likely to need to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. If the project had been properly planned, using appropriate equipment for work at height, then all three workers would have remained uninjured.” Bizspace appeared at Warrington Crown Court on 7 January and pleaded guilty to s2(1) of the HSWA 1974. It was fined £5000 and ordered to pay £9000 in costs. Anthony Massey appeared at the same hearing and pleaded guilty to breaching s3(1) of the same Act. As he had been declared bankrupt, Massey received a 12-month conditional discharge. Following the hearing a spokesman from Bizspace told SHP: “The conviction of Bizspace only related to the falls of their two employees, not that of the specialist roofing contractor, which was clearly the most serious of the three. “Judge Hales accepted that neither employee was instructed by the company to go onto the roof and indeed, that there was no necessity for them to be there. This was reflected in the low level of fine imposed.” Inspector Heywood added: “More workplace deaths are caused by falls from height than anything else but companies continue to allow workers to balance dangerously on roofs. It is vital lessons are learnt from this tragic case. Source: HSE

Kitten Killing Scaffolder Jailed

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A Scaffolder who killed a 14-week-old kitten by drunkenly flinging it to the floor has been jailed for 24 weeks and banned from ever owning another animal. Scaffolder Grant Hurlbert, 26, went out drinking with friends after an argument with his girlfriend, Gabrielle Delo, and returned to the flat later after drinking several pints of Stella lager. Stella Williams, prosecuting, told Medway Magistrates Court on Monday his behaviour was “strange”. “He was naked and rolling around on the floor” she said, before describing how Hurlburt went into the kitchen and picked up the kitten, which had been given to him by his girlfriend as a present. Gabrielle’s brother Kristopher Delo went into the kitchen and saw Hurlbert “hold the kitten above his head with both hands and throw it hard on the floor”. The kitten, which later died, was seen to be twitching on the floor. Hurlbert then assaulted Gabrielle’s father, Laurent Allswoth, as he forced him out of the house – then wiped mucus on a police officer before trying to kick out the window of a police van. He was also found to be in possession of cannabis. Hurlbert pleaded guilty to two counts of assault, possessing cannabis and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal at an earlier hearing. Judge Michael Kelly said drunkenness was no excuse for what was an act of “wanton cruelty”. Hurlbert was also banned from owning any animal for the rest of his life. Source: Kentonline.co.uk

Government Cutbacks Hit The HSE

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Budget pressures prompt HSE to close offices

Faced with a 35-per-cent government-funding squeeze, the HSE has decided to close two of its offices in the North West of England. The Executive’s plans to close its Preston and Manchester sites, which are approaching their lease-break periods in the next year or so, will affect 58 and 100 staff, respectively. In both offices there is a mix of visiting staff, inspectors and visiting officers, and office-based administrative personnel. The posts will transfer to the HSE’s headquarters in Bootle, Merseyside. According to an HSE spokesperson, the office closures, which are not expected before June, are seen as the best way to protect its existing headcount and should not adversely affect its front-line contact with business. It also expects to save around £5.3m over 10 years by consolidating its estate in the region. The spokesperson explained: “Like every part of government, HSE is looking for ways of improving the efficiency of our organisation and delivering value for money to the taxpayer without undermining front-line services. This decision will allow us to reduce the amount of buildings we use without cutting jobs, or reducing the service we provide to the North West.” However, the PCS union claims that 20 per cent of staff will opt against a move and look to leave the organisation. Paula Brown, PCS national executive member and chair of the union’s HSE branch, said: “HSE’s own study showed that at least one in five staff will seek to leave following the move to Bootle, with the figure rising to more than half of lower-paid staff. The loss of skills and local knowledge will take years to replace.” The union also believes that any savings the move yields will be wiped out by a rise in days lost to injury and illness in the wider regional economy. It plans to meet HSE management early this month to argue against the closures. PCS negotiations officer Jayson Sloss said: “An alternative proposal to retain downsized offices in Preston and Manchester is far more preferable. It would maintain quality health and safety provision while still offering savings to HSE, and it is disappointing that HSE rejected this possibility.” Source : Unknown

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Scaffolding Manager Weighs Own Safety Class

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A UAE scaffolding company is considering launching its own safety training programme to compete with existing schemes and prosper in the lucrative but safety-intensive oil and gas industries. Neil Taylor, contracts manager at the Al Futtaim Engineering’s Scaffolding & Formwork Division, has highlighted the prospect of a training school internally on the back of a dearth in good scaffolding training schemes in the region and an expected tightening to regulation.
Scaffolding safety is not always followed nor enforced, says Taylor.
“I’ve floated the idea to management so we’ll see what happens. It is a sellable service – if regulation comes in then companies will have to train their scaffolders better,” he told CW. Taylor says that despite existing safety standards for scaffolding in Dubai – the company’s home market – there is little enforcement through fines. Without such pressure, he says, some companies do not enforce standards internally. “There is no government authority regulating this. Abu Dhabi is pushing on with HSE and training up inspectors who will go on site and fine contractors. The regulation is there, Reg 8, 24, but they are not enforced in the street.” Taylor is also critical of some of the existing programmes that claim to be CITB accredited, a general industry standard, that do not train participants to the required levels. But this has presented to him an opportunity, particularly in light of the company’s strides to improve its safety accreditation as it seeks to win projects in oil and gas – two industrial areas that demand high safety standards from all contractors and have been shining examples of thorough training. “The majority of our work is with outside contractors and we’re looking to move into oil and gas industries, because scaffolding is a big market in these markets,” he said. “The approach to safety is different. In the town [urban-based projects such as those residential and commercial] the safety standards can be pretty grim, though in oil and gas the standards are pretty paramount and you have to comply with British or European standards. “Companies that work offshore, the contractors, do training because when you’re offshore everyone needs to be trained,” he added, mentioning CCC, the fabrication company, as a particularly strong example. Taylor’s division provides tailored scaffolding structures and has supplied systems used at the top of the Burj Khalifa and the Burj Al Arab among other notable projects. But the oil and gas markets are likely to present a healthy source of revenue in the next few years if contracts can be secured, he says, due to the typically longer duration of contracts and more reliable payment structure. Barry Furlong, director and general manager UAE at Harsco Infrastructure, which last year brought Quebeisi SGB and Hunnebec, two subsidiaries, under a single banner of Harsco Infrastructure, also attests to the opportunities in the oil and gas markets, with slight differences between contracts deriving from maintenance work as from new projects. “Maintenance work tends to be longer, so you may be locked in for 2-3 years, so that’s a steady stream of income,” he said. Source: Construction Week Online

£400,000 Scaffolding Bill For Harborne’s Clock Tower

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Birmingham City Council has been criticised for spending £400,000 on scaffolding around a crumbling building which it may sell.
The clock tower scaffold
For the last nine months the authority has been paying an outside contractor to provide scaffolding for the Clock Tower in Harborne. The money is coming from the Adults and Communities budget – one of the departments which is facing the toughest cuts in next year’s spending review. The 130-year-old Grade II-listed building is run by the Adults and Communities Directorate which has been told it is the department which will bear the brunt of the massive cutbacks in April. Since the 1960s, the Clock Tower has been used as an adult education centre, but it closed in July when a survey revealed it was structurally unsafe due to years of neglect on the maintenance and repair programme. In March the council was forced to put up scaffolding when slates starting falling from the roof onto the pavement below. More than 100 adult education classes held at the Clock Tower have been transferred to other sites in south Birmingham. But since then – faced with a massive repair bill and a need to sell off assets to plug the black hole in its finances – the council has decided to put the building up for sale. But there will be a condition that the new owner retains it for community use. When the cost of the scaffolding was revealed during a meeting of Harborne ward committee, residents were shocked and questioned the amount. Derrick Clarke, a conservation architect and a member of the Harborne Society, said he feared the council had been overcharged. “I have recently worked on a project to renovate the National Trust’s Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire – a much larger building – where the total scaffolding bill for the whole year was £650,000,” he said. “How can it cost £400,000 to put scaffolding around the Clock Tower?” Another resident Harry Takhar said: “The adults and communities budget is paying out £60,000 per month – who authorised this uncompetitive charge? “I have been told by a scaffolding firm that the cost would be £45,000 set-up costs for 14 weeks and then £2,200 per month thereafter – considerably cheaper than what the council is paying.” He also asked why the council did not take the advice given to it free of charge earlier in the year by Mr Clarke, an expert in such matters. Council leader and Harborne councillor Mike Whitby defended the cost, saying the process for hiring the scaffolding had gone through the usual competitive tendering procedure. He also pledged that the Clock Tower would remain a community building and would not be knocked down. “The issue of ownership is flexible – the days when the public sector can manage a building ad infinitum are gone,” he said. The community consultation on the Clock Tower’s future will run until February 11. Members of the public are invited to have their say via forms available in Harborne Library. Source: Birminghampost.net

SG4:10 The Foreword To The New NASC Guidance

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In the Foreword to the new NASC guidance SG4:10 Philip White (Head of Construction, HSE) states, “This revision represents a step change in the way scaffold contractors should erect their scaffold structures. The guidance is straightforward and comprehensive and represents best practice within the industry” Since its introduction in the mid-nineties Safety Guidance Number 4 (SG4) from the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) has become the established minimum standard for fall prevention in the scaffolding industry. SG4 rose to prominence following the major revision in 2000 (SG4:00) as it represented a significant change and challenge to the established methods of working that had been practiced for decades. In 2000, the updated revision (SG4:00) saw the introduction of a new methodology that was christened the ‘tunnelling principle’, where the scaffolder’s priority on any working platform was to progressively create a safe working platform with guardrail protection and correctly supported working platforms, in the same manner a miner shores up a tunnel as it is excavated – thus minimising the time exposed to risk. This was also the first occasion where scaffolders were now expected to wear personal fall protection equipment (safety harnesses) at all times, as standard. The priority now was to provide a ‘safe zone’ utilising collective measures before resorting to personal protection. However, it was still recognised that there was an inherent risk of a fall in scaffolding operations that could not be completely avoided therefore scaffolders would need to be clipped on whenever exposed to a risk of a fall and not traversing themselves and materials. The tunnelling principle made an allowance for scaffolders to traverse, unprotected, along a boarded lift for the maximum length of materials they were guardrailing with e.g. a maximum of 6.4m (21ft). SG4 was again revised and updated in 2005 to reflect the requirements of the new Work at Height Regulations (WAHR), introduced that year, and included guidance on developments in technology in the intervening years. Innovations included amongst others; newcollective protection methods that could remove the unprotected traversing element of the tunnelling principle and new anchor devices that enabled scaffolders to attached their harnesses to higher points above the working platform, thereby reducing fall distances. A change of emphasis in the new regulations for collective protection over personal was already supported by the SG4:05 guidance. However, to further promote innovations in collective protection equipment and methods an interim guidance note was issued in September 2008 (SG4:05 Appendix A). The aim was to raise the profile and promote collective measures available to scaffolders and employers. Many of these innovative new products and systems of work have been devised by scaffolders and contractors, which include a variety of cost effective solutions which is normally the major objection to change by many employers. In agreement with the Health and Safety Executive SG4 is revised every 5 years and work on the next revision is well underway. The working party is aiming to complete revisions of both the management guide (SG4) and the user guide (SG4 You) for approval by the HSE, NASC Council and Membership for a launch before the end of the year (2010). The new SG4:10 – ‘Preventing Falls in Scaffolding’ – will see more emphasis on the creation of a ‘Safe Zone’ by scaffolders covering avariety of safe methods. This revision will also see the removal of the practice of the ‘unprotected traversing element’ from the tunnelling principle. The initial impact to the Industry to implement these new measures will be significant for those who have not yet embraced the systems of work promoted by SG4:05 and Appendix A. Interestingly the NASC’s analysis of the ‘unprotected traversing element’ shows that it represented only a small percentage of the scaffolder’s working day. The NASC accepts that in practice the ‘unprotected traverse’ fails to comply with current legislation. However at the time of the previous revisions, it was accepted by the HSE as areasonably practicable solution in the absence of other alternatives. It has to be recognised that the initial investment and increased future overheads is a major factor to be taken into consideration by Scaffolding Contractors, however, the guidance will help ensure scaffolders and their employers work safer and comply with the law. “The HSE will no longer accept the unprotected traversing element of the tunnelling principle that featured in previous versions of the guide [SG4:10]” Philip White, Head of Construction, HSE The NASC and HSE acknowledge that there are scaffolders and contractors who still do not comply with the current guidance. This is evident in any town or city by the tell-tale signs scaffolders leave behind i.e. no Scaffolder’s guardrails or intermediate transoms. It is clear that you don’t have to actually see scaffolders working to know whether they have even attempted to work to SG4. The NASC considers collective protection as passive protection, for example a guardrail will remain in place and provide protection should someone fall against it, whereas personal fall protection equipment (harnesses) is ‘personal’ or ‘active’ protection that must be attached to afford any benefit to the user. A number of NASC Members are already routinely working with collective protection measures and report increased demand from Principal Contractors and Clients for the same. To order your copy of SG4:10 Preventing Falls from Scaffolding please click here Source: The NASC

“Scaffolding Safety Blitz” By HSE Expected For 2011

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The NASC anticipate that the HSE will carry out a ‘scaffolding safety blitz’ during 2011 focusing on compliance with SG4:10. Stringent measures are expected to be taken against scaffolders, their employers and also main contractors who fail to ensure safe systems of work are adhered to.
Source: NASC Yearbook 2011

SG4:10 We Think The Answer Is Fast Guard™

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If Carlsberg made advance guardrails…..  could this be the best advance guardrail system on the market??… we think so.

The Fast Guard™ Collective Fall Prevention System has been designed to meet the needs of the modern scaffolding industry and SG4:10. The system is exceptionally fast to install,
Fast Guard website
instinctive to use, requires little loading out and provides a safe working environment, in advance, for scaffolders. The key component behind the Fast Guard system is a unique self locking coupler which attaches to a scaffold standard from any direction, without the need for tools. From the safety of a fully protected platform couplers are loaded with traditional scaffold tube, including stop ends and returns, ready to provide continuous guardrails. The Fast Guard couplers are then raised beyond normal reach using the Fast Guard Positioning Wand and levelled with reference to the next platform ledger to provide a correctly positioned 950mm high advance guardrail. Following completion of the next platform the advance guardrail tube is used to provide the permanent intermediate guardrail of the working platform, or raised again to form the advance guard rail of the next platform. When completing long elevations consisting of several lengths of tube Fast Guard Joiners are used to provide a continuous and unbroken guardrail. The Joiners are designed to lock and be unlocked from the safety of the protected platform. Using Fast Guard to safely dismantle a scaffold is easy. Fit the Fast Guard couplers above the top existing guardrail; remove the intermediate guardrail and load into the couplers cradles; fit all joiners as required. Leaving the Fast Guard system in place for your own protection, descend to the level below and completely dismantle the scaffold as normal, including all ledgers and external sway bracing. Using the positioning wand lower the Fast Guard couplers to within comfortable reach and remove. Scaffolders use couplers every day of their working lives, it’s second nature. A collective fall prevention system that does the same, and follows common scaffolding principles in the way it is implemented, soon becomes second nature too. Find Out More … http://www.bsafelimited.co.uk/
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