Harrogate Borough Council

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Letters are going out next week to around 150 businesses in the Harrogate district as a groundbreaking new project moves health, safety and security to the top of the agenda.

 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Harrogate Borough Council, in partnership with North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, are launching Harrogate Safer Business Community, a new initiative which in November will take inspectors through the doors of businesses on three of the district's business parks Barker Business Park, Melmerby; Hornbeam Business Park, Harrogate; Marston Moor Business Park, Tockwith.

 

Where safety standards are found to be poor, HSE and Harrogate Borough Council will not hesitate to take enforcement action. Yet, pooling resources to carry out this joint week-long inspection campaign is only one of the ways in which partner organisations are aiming to make an impact on the toll workplace accidents and ill health take of individuals and companies in the area

 

Firms are first being put on alert with an offer of all the help and advice they need to get their health and safety 'housekeeping' in order over the coming weeks. Letters are going out now to all the businesses involved, accompanied by safety 'health check' forms which aim to help employers and employees focus on key areas of concern or gaps in their understanding of current legal requirements. In early September mobile 'surgeries' will go out on location to each business site bringing expert advisers right to the company doorstep.

 

Nicky Garside, Head of Public Protection, for Harrogate Borough Council says that the inspections are the final phase in this project.   "We want first to bring help and guidance right to the businesses' doors.  We will happily sit down with employers and employees to look at any concerns they may have and to give them good free advice about what action they should be taking in light of the completed safety 'health check' questionnaires."         

 

HSE Principal Inspector Chris Flint, who leads the HSE team on this project, says:

 

"Harrogate Safer Business Community is an important new initiative, involving as it does a range of local partners all working together to improve their local area, and companies will be given all the help they need to turn their workplaces into safer, healthier working environments.

 

"Across Yorkshire and Humber 10 people died from work-related activities in 2006-7 and nearly 3,000 people suffered major injuries. These statistics make a strong argument for change because each one represents individual suffering and loss.  Added to that 3.1 million working days were lost due to injury and ill health so there is an economic impact too.

 

  "There is no doubt the people best placed to make workplaces safer and more secure are the staff and managers who work in them. They do this best by working together which is why HSE, Harrogate Borough Council together with partners North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue are putting their weight behind this initiative, giving support and encouragement to businesses, and working to give them the help they need."

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.      For more information about the Harrogate Safer Business Community initiative contact Anne Haynes on Tel: 0113 341 3172 or Lynne Mee on Tel 01423 556022.

2.      Businesses seeking help and advice at the 'surgeries' should contact Lynn Widdows of Harrogate Borough Council for an appointment on Tel: 01423 556905.