Crawley MP sparks health and safety row (From The Argus)
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Crawley MP sparks health and safety row
9:32am Friday 7th September 2012 in News
AN MP sparked a row after claiming that a council refused to allow a bench to be installed under a tree for health and safety reasons.
Crawley MP Henry Smith sparked a Parliamentary debate on over-zealous health and safety regulations yesterday when he claimed that Crawley Borough Council had been told benches under trees had to be removed because they posed a safety risk.
However, the MP’s claims were quickly rejected by Crawley Borough Council and the Health and Safety Executive, who said the bench had been rejected because of its appearance.
Mr Smith raised the issue after learning that Pound Hill (North) Residents’ Association had its proposals for a bench to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee rejected earlier this year.
Alan Quine, acting chairman of the association, said the proposals to have a circular bench set beneath a tree in Worth Park Gardens were rejected by the council because of health and safety fears.
He said: “We thought the suggestion would be something they welcomed but when we were told it would be a health and safety issue we decided we wouldn’t argue with the council.
Their plans for benches were rebuffed mainly for style reasons and had nothing to do with health and safety
Health and safety executive spokeswoman
“The bench would have gone beneath a monkey puzzle tree and it’s not like things drop down from those sort of trees.
“Will they be telling people to stick to the paths and not walk under trees next?”
Miscommunication
Speaking outside the Commons, Mr Smith said: “They were told they couldn’t have this circular bench around the tree because the council had been told they had to remove all park benches from underneath trees.
“In my view this is clearly absurd. It just seems to me to be an extreme example of health and safety advice gone mad.”
A Crawley Borough Council spokeswoman said the request for a bench was rejected because the style of the bench was not suitable for the park, which is undergoing a major renovation to restore it to “its former Victorian glory”.
The council claimed its reasoning had been “miscommunicated” when reported in the residents’ association’s news-letter.
She added: “Crawley Borough Council has not been removing benches from under trees due to health safety issues and the Health and Safety Executive has never advised us to do so.
“It was also felt that the tree could grow and break a bench which encased the trunk, and one of the officers had also seen an article some time ago which recommended caution about placing benches under trees.”
A Health and Safety Executive spokeswoman said: “The Health and Safety Executive did not advise Crawley Borough Council to remove benches from under trees.
“Their plans for benches were rebuffed mainly for style reasons and had nothing to do with health and safety.”
Brighton and Hove City Council said it had no plans to remove benches |from under trees while East Sussex County Council said it had not advised its borough and district councils to take any action either.
Comments(6)
Andy R
says...
10:48am Fri 7 Sep 12
HJarrs
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11:16am Fri 7 Sep 12
While all political parties line up a few soft questions I am afraid the Tories are the masters at this by some margin. Pretty much all the clap trap about Europe, political correctness, health and safety etc are down to the Conservatives and their mouthpieces like the Express and Mail. I wouldn't have a problem if it was an innocent mistake, but we all know that it is purposeful propaganda as commented above.
Now that Henry Smith has been caught out I bet he won't be rushing to correct himself in the House of Commons.
ray ellerton
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11:49am Fri 7 Sep 12
us generations seemed to have it, the reason it is lacking now is that responsibility for ones own safety has been replaced by a blame culture. Yes sometimes accidents happen, but also by definition it is an accident and not attributable to a third party.
Tailgaters Anonymous
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1:08pm Fri 7 Sep 12
ourcoalition
says...
10:41pm Fri 7 Sep 12
ray ellerton wrote:That is factually untrue I am afraid. Accidents are exactly that, but here we are talking about employers pressuring staff to take short cuts, not providing proper equipment, and so forth. In my job, as a trade union officer, I see the end result when this happens. You can call this anecdotal, if you want, but the figures for, say, farming (tractors were not required to have roll bars), heavy industry, building, are indisputable, when you compare any decade from the last century to now. There was no common sense then, as you put it, just dangerous working conditions - again, look at mining disasters in the 1930's and again in the 1960's.
What HSE regs have taken away is our inbuilt commonsense...previo
us generations seemed to have it, the reason it is lacking now is that responsibility for ones own safety has been replaced by a blame culture. Yes sometimes accidents happen, but also by definition it is an accident and not attributable to a third party.
And taking this example, what common sense is there in a scaffolder with no safety harness, at that height - the question is, did his employer provide one and, if so, why wasn't he using it ? It's not blame we need, but proper enforcement, for everyone's good.
fascinator says...
10:09am Fri 7 Sep 12