GroundsWeek is an annual celebration of the often overlooked groundskeeper, who plays a vital role in maintaining the green spaces that enhance our lives and support mental and physical well-being. The week is marked by activities and campaigns to promote the profession, share best practices, and appreciate the work groundskeeping professionals accomplish. An entire week dedicated to highlighting the skills of grounds staff, whilst inspiring everyone to appreciate the industry. Groundskeepers Roles and Responsibilities It requires specialist training to enable for a grounds person to carry out their daily activities such as mowing, hedge-cutting, strimming and leaf blowing...

Managing hazards in a business is fundamental to maintaining the safety of employees. Under UK law, employers have a duty of care to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of all employees. This means it’s an employer’s responsibility to identify the hazards facing their employees and implement measures to mitigate them. It's fairly common for employees (and in many cases, management) to be unaware of the hazards they face regularly. Those who haven't encountered an accident often feel they aren't at risk. Additionally, many workers become accustomed to an unhealthy or unsafe workplace due to working in that environment for an extended period. The best way to prevent injuries..

A motorsport engineering firm based in Kent has been fined after Britain’s workplace regulator identified numerous health and safety breaches. Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Hispec Motorsport Limited - a specialist designer and producer of aftermarket brake upgrades for road, race, track, and kit cars. During their visits, the inspectors found serious breaches of the law and enforcement notices were issued. The subsequent investigation found the business had not maintained work equipment and staff were seen operating Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines with safety panels removed allowing access to dangerous moving parts. A high voltage panel..

A textiles company has been fined £60,000 after an employee suffered serious injuries their right arm in an incident at a factory operated by Pin Croft Dyeing and Printing Co. Limited in Market Street, Adlington, on 20 June 2022. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the employee had been operating a large fabric spooling machine when the brake malfunctioned. During an attempt to manually slow the rotation of the machine, he broke both major bones in his forearm when his sleeve was caught by a rotating spindle. Despite the company being aware of the risk posed by the moving spindle, they failed to either remove or suitably guard this part of the machi..

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that a manufacturer of paper and cardboard (Amberset Limited) failed to regularly review safety measures on their machinery and equipment to ensure that access to hazardous parts was prevented. The HSE found that the safety of the paper rewinder had not been reviewed since August 1998. If Amberset Limited had conducted safety inspections on their machinery and equipment they would have spotted that the paper rewinder was not suitably guarded and allowed access to dangerous parts at various places including the front of the rewinder where the employee was drawn into the machine by their hand between two exposed rollers. ..

Since January the 1st 2021 the rules and procedures regarding work place maintenance of machinery and equipment has changed. In order to ensure that work place machinery and equipment doesn't deteriorate to the extent that it may put people in harms way, employers are required by PUWER (The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998) to maintain it to a good standard. Effective maintenance of work place machinery and equipment can not only help businesses meet the expectations of PUWER but it can also improve productivity, reduce downtime and your environmental impact. Critical parts of workplace equipment may need a higher frequency of maintenance, which will be highlighted..