Health and Safety Best Practice Awards
OVER 160 guests gathered in London last month to see Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the DTLR responsible for health and safety, present the results of the Quarry Products Association’s new Health and Safety Best Practice Awards.
The most prestigious trophy, the John Crabbe Memorial Award, was presented to Johnston Roadstone’s Leaton Quarry, near Telford, Shropshire, one of 32 sites shortlisted for awards from the scheme’s 230 original entrants, for overall outstanding excellence in health and safety. Johnson Roadstone also scooped another top award, the Sir Frank Davies Trophy, for overall excellence in health and safety for SMEs.
A new feature of the awards this year was the introduction of five topic-based categories designed to tackle current problem areas in health and safety. This year the five categories reflected the problem areas identified in the QPA’s/HSE’s ‘Hard Targets’ initiative.
In the five categories, the Wimpey Minerals Trophy for ‘Mobile Plant Safety’ was awarded to Tarmac Northern; Midland Quarry Products’ Edwin Richards Quarry won the Blue Circle Trophy for ‘Behavioural Safety’; the Trevor King Trophy for ‘Guarding of Machinery’ was awarded to Aggregate Industries’ Back Lane Quarry; the EPIC Trophy for ‘Management of Contractors’ was awarded to Lafarge Contracting in Bristol; and the Tilcon Trophy for ‘Occupational Health’ was won by Tarmac Central in Buxton.
The winner of the final award, the hotly contended QPA Innovation Award, which places special emphasis on the originality and ingenuity of the entry, was an admixture pump developed by Tarmac Northern.
Commenting on the awards, QPA director general Simon van der Byl said: ‘Health and safety must always be our number one priority. The revitalization of the QPA Health and Safety Competition in the shape of the QPA Health and Safety Best Practice Awards, in addition to initiatives such as the ‘Hard Targets’ pledge and the QPA’s new Good Practice Guide, will be instrumental in helping us achieve real and lasting improvements in health and safety.’
