A day with the HSE

Just the mention of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to someone in high risk industry such as tree surgery could make the hairs on your neck stand to attention…

So when Simon Richmond from the Arboricultural Association (AA) made a call to Simon Rotheram, our Managing Director, to ask if the HSE could come in and see our methods of managing work at height, the initial reaction wasn’t that enthisiastic!

However, after consideration, and given the fact we had worked with the HSE on a number of occasions in the past, we knew they were always very constructive to interact with, so we agreed.

Following the recent industry attention on 2 rope working, and the work at height hierarchy, the focus was on us demonstrating access into trees using various methods, such as mobile elevated work platform (MEWP) and rope access.

The day started with Simon Richmond from the AA providing a bit of a background on the developments in the industry and discussing the new technical guides recently published by the AA. We then made our way to the live sites:

Site 1, was a large Weeping Willow being sectionally felled, this was using MEWP access. We discussed the reasoning behind selecting a work platform for the operation over climbing. There was some interactive discussion from both our operatives and the officers.

Following a short lunch break, with some lovely sandwiches and cake, plus the odd cappuccino at the ‘Mocha Lounge’ we were on to the next one:

Site 2, we demonstrated rope access using a primary and a back up system in accordance with the guidance in TG1.

We discussed our selection of rope access in this tree, based on:

• The operation to be completed - Dead wooding

• The tree type - Lime with dense crown and epicormic growth

• The site - Graveyard with poor access

  It was agreed that this was the best method of access in order to achieve the task in hand.

This was demonstrated very smoothly by James Mousley, our Team leader and qualified Arborist, who talked the officers through Doubled Rope Access (DRT) and Static or single rope access (SRT).

Having the HSE come in to scrutinise our operations could have been very intimidating, but the day went well with lots of constructive input from all parties involved.

As a company we are used to being externally audited as part of our many accreditations, and it showed by the professionalism of our teams on site, they were fluid and knowledgeable and responded clearly to the questions and observations made throughout the day.