Doormats? eh?

[Potstubsdustbins]

If you google 'trip hazards in domestic dwellings' you will find lots of advice but even the local government web site does not mention any specific law/regulation.

Colin

[Snadger]

What's an obsticle? Is that a cross between and obstacle and a - oh, I'll just leave it I think. You do the math.

*Thank you Captain. It really helps, honest.

Has no one told you?...............its in the NEW EU spelling police rule book!

[zazen999]

Thanks Pots - I think they must have just made a HOOGE leap or decided to scare them [most of them are getting on a bit but still a tad feisty].

[Potstubsdustbins]

Zazs I don't think their trying to scare anyone its more likely that they themselves are scared of being sued.

One of the problems I often find is that large companies like a couple of national cash & carry's I work in is that their H&E person is not fully trained and is working from a book with their imagination.

A prime example happened a couple of months ago whilst I was working on a 35mm gas pipe. A young suit arrived and started asking questions about how we were going to tackle the job in hand with particular reference to gas safety.

I handed him my Gas Safe ID card, asked to see his and asked at the same time if he could remember the correct calculations for a split soundness and purging test. Thats when he started blowing bubbles, he quickly left when I told him his presence was in fact detrimental to safety as he had stuff on him that could cause a spark. He didn't even notice the bladdy great blow lamp in my mates hand.

Colin

[nkp1962]

interesting thread - seems to me that the one thing all officials now lack is the most basic - common sense - we all make risk assessments every day, even if we don't realise it! the EU just has to take it one step further then the health and safety taliban jump on the bandwagon (note to self - need to carry out risk assessment regarding jumping on the band wagon!

[Two_Sheds]

My belief is that there is legislation ... ruling that all employees must not be exposed to obsticles that may cause a trip/fall.

That rules out shoelaces and high heels then, and come to think of it, feet too.

[VirginVegGrower]

Zazs I don't think their trying to scare anyone its more likely that they themselves are scared of being sued.

One of the problems I often find is that large companies like a couple of national cash & carry's I work in is that their H&E person is not fully trained and is working from a book with their imagination.

A prime example happened a couple of months ago whilst I was working on a 35mm gas pipe. A young suit arrived and started asking questions about how we were going to tackle the job in hand with particular reference to gas safety.

I handed him my Gas Safe ID card, asked to see his and asked at the same time if he could remember the correct calculations for a split soundness and purging test. Thats when he started blowing bubbles, he quickly left when I told him his presence was in fact detrimental to safety as he had stuff on him that could cause a spark. He didn't even notice the bladdy great blow lamp in my mates hand.

Colin

I would concur with this - since sueing the ass of everyone came to us here from across the pond, our legal machinery has gone into overdrive. This will be the housing associations way of lessening their chances of receiving a complaint plus court case. Also possibly of lowering crippling insurancebills. Last winter we did not see our postie for nearly two weeks - why? Because his bosses told him that it was unsafe to do so. We live on an unadopted private lane.

[zazen999]

But these are flats that are owned by the occupants; rather than housing assn; so it's the leasehold company that has written to them...ie the people that do the maintenance.

[snohare]

I suggest we all leave ladders lying around on national wealth and wastie week. Rebel a little

Yes, if we're lucky we might get a politician or two, maybe even a H&S suit who can't assess risks well...
Longer term, it's not "risky", it's safety through evolution.

[Potstubsdustbins]

But these are flats that are owned by the occupants; rather than housing assn; so it's the leasehold company that has written to them...ie the people that do the maintenance.

In that case then I would suggest they are trying to cover their arriss. When a maintenance contractor steps into the building it becomes a place of work and all heath & safety regulations apply for the duration of the works. This also applies in your private home thats why old folk are not allowed to smoke when their council carer is in attendance.

Colin

[cptncrackoff]

Obsticle - an old Essex word, sort of a cross between an item and an obstacle.

[snohare]

I always thought an "obsticle" was what a conservation volunteer encountered in a wood when entering an area of fallen branches or trees.
( Funnily enough, a working environment with lots of trip hazards all over the place, and I have only seen one injury in over 20 years. That was Gary the Accident Magnet...)