29.11.2008

Ladders cleared for use

Ladders have now been cleared for use to install Christmas decorations in Llandovery, Wales thanks to the help of the Ladder Association. The town has a series of sockets above each shop window which hold small Christmas trees during the festive period.

The trees have traditionally been inserted by local council employees who climb a short ladder while carrying the tree and then insert its trunk into the sockets. This year the council was informed that this contravenes the Work At Height Regulations which requires both hands to be free to climb the ladder.

The council was told that it would need to use scaffolding or an aerial lift to do the work, something that the council considered to be too expensive. The alternative plan which it was preparing was to give the shop holders the trees and allow them to install the trees.
See BBC report on the issue
Philip Davies, head of public protection at Carmarthenshire County Council, contacted the Ladder Association which helped devise a safe method of attaching the ladder to the socket brackets via an ‘T’-bolt and quick release safety clip.

Davies said: “We did the risk assessment and came up with this straightforward, cost-effective solution.”

David Walker of the Ladder Association added. “We have recently been involved in a number of similar cases nationwide where misinterpretation at local level has resulted in unnecessary restrictions on ladder use and a resultant increase in global risk and, of course, cost.”

“The replacement of one of the existing Christmas tree bracket bolts with a suitably rated ‘l’ bolt, together with an adjustable lashing strap and clip attached to the ladder, will allow Llandovery Council to install the trees at minimum risk.”

Vertikal Comment

It is good to see some common sense creeping in to this debate, all too often local officials simply accept some over-extreme and off the wall interpretation of what are otherwise sensible rules.

The media is also responsible for whipping up some of these stories and some local politicians are happy to see it happen so that they can then step in and ‘solve the problem’ or have an excuse for further funds.

It is also slightly worrying at the number of times one hears local councils dismissing the use of powered access as too expensive, when in many cases its use would save money by doing the job faster. In this case ladders were probably the simplest and least expensive tool for the job, however if the tree sockets had been slightly higher though, or the street longer, a compact scissor lift would have been a far easier and faster way of doing the job.

Our own experience tells a story: We aim to circulate our magazines to all local authorities, in the country of publication. The intention is to provide the key staff within departments responsible for areas, such as facilities management and street maintenance and lighting, with information on the latest, most efficient methods of working at height.

We struggle with a significant number of local authorities in the UK to find anyone within these departments with an interest in keeping up to date with the subject. While in Germany the opposite is the case.

Local authority management incompetence causes many, if not all of cases such as the one above. Thank goodness that in this case the manager concerned sought out further advice. Perhaps he was a reader of Cranes &Access?