West Cambridge Safety Committee
01 June 2005
Present at the meeting: Dr P Brooks (Chair), Ms R Convey, Mr A Wonfor, Mr R Stacey, Ms M Nicell, Ms R Linton, Mr M Whiteland, Mr J Emmines, Mr P Hardy, Mr A Gordon, Mr P Taylor, Ms L Pitcher, Ms J Ingham, Dr M Vinnell, Ms A Lowday, Mr I Day, Dr J Blunt, Mr A King and Mr N Wilson.
Attending: Mrs K Ross (Secretary)
1. Apologies for absence
Mr M Panes, Ms S Parr, Mr P Kidney, Ms L Baker, Mr S Matthews and Ms R Moss.
2. Name, remit and methods.
The committee will meet to act as a forum to discuss all health and safety problems around the site. This might look at health issues where they impact on safety, but environmental issues will continue to be covered at the West Cambridge Site meeting. The committee will look at new buildings as well as existing buildings.
Communication between the site meeting and the safety meeting should be two way to ensure that items are being progressed and that ground is not covered twice. In most instances it would be best to contact Mr A Gordon to address any problems, as he will either be able to tackle the issue or know who to pass it to. Often it will be EMBS who will be able to deal with the issue. There is no need to wait for meetings to bring problems forward.
A serious concern is the presence of children on the site particularly as the site has residences and a nursery as well as departments. In the event of the an accident a university First Aider may be called. All university First Aiders on site have now been trained in infant resuscitation and can be kept updated on changes to the site (which is useful if an ambulance needs to be called).
Roads are another particular concern. The roads on the site are not public roads, but there is not a clear path of responsibility and reporting as the roads are between departments. The roads on the site are covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act rather than Highways regulations. In the event of an accident the report should be passed to the DSO in the First Aider’s department and will then be passed to any relevant parties. However it may be that not all accidents are being reported, which could lead to issues being under represented.
The committee will be called the West Cambridge Safety Committee and will meet termly, normally a week or two before the Site Users meeting.
3. Resources and reporting procedures
The committee has been asked to report to the Safety Executive although site user meetings do not currently do this. It may be better to only bring specific items to their attention rather than send minutes which may become cumbersome. Highlighting specific issues may help bring management weight to any measures needed. Concern was expressed that to report to the top level safety committee in the University in this way was without precedent and we needed to be sure it was appropriate.
The minutes will be published on line, available to all. The minutes will be circulated to members before they are published, with any corrections made. The minutes will be formally approved at the next meeting. Security sensitivity will apply and care will be taken to not to publish names and addresses, apart from naming those at the meetings.
Two email lists will be set up both for those who attend the meetings and for those who just wish to receive information.
In the case of sharing information about hazards within a department which might affect others on the site it became clear that there is not a system for informing everyone on site of a particular problem. It was also clear that the non-university groups are not aware of what the university departments have in terms of hazards and vice versa. In the event of a serious problem, Security would be the first port of call as they have emergency numbers for all the departments. This could be extended to include all groups on the site, if the non-university and Security are willing; communication needs to go both ways. With regard to First Aiders being called to potential hazard situations, it should be noted that all First Aiders should be accompanied when entering facilities they are not familiar with. Security personnel have access to security emergency wallets which contain information on the various hazards they may face although the information is not consistent.
Contingency plans during and after incidents could also be shared. This could help everyone on site to know what would happen in the event of an incident and also to plan for sharing storage for sensitive information and documents.
4 Planned Road Changes and Road Markings
Mr A Gordon will inform the group if there are any problems and changes to the site’s roads and routes.
The cycle routes throughout the site are currently a mess. Hopefully over time they will be reconfigured to improve the situation. Vehicles, cycles and pedestrians need to be separated on routes, this is not always happening. Every time a road is built on the site, this needs to be taken into consideration.
Gritting is the responsibility of the University as the Council only do their own roads. The Coton footpath is the responsibility of the Council but is a low priority so it does not get done, therefore Physics tend to do the section towards town for pragmatic reasons as it is largely their First Aiders who get called to incidents.
Access to car parks can be a problem during construction phases, but this should improve.
5.1 List of workplace regulations (including road safety and white lines/signs)
Work is continuing on meeting regulations concerning white lines and signage.
There is still work to do.
5.2 A list for tenants on the subject of children’s safety on site
This still needs to be done and will be kept on the agenda. Tenants have been
asked not to take children round the site. Currently the possibility of developing
outdoor play facilities is being investigated. Tenants have been asked not to park
on the curbs. The large heavy doors are being replaced to make the entrance safer.
5.3 Signage around the various ponds
This has been put in place. However signage alone is not sufficient to protect
children as they may not be able to read it or take any notice. Children should be
supervised by their parents or a responsible adult.
5.4 Lighting
Some lighting is already in place and the lighting for JJ Thomson Avenue has
been ordered.
5.5 An approach to the council about the gritting around the site.
The Council are only responsible for gritting their own roads. Our grounds staff
do the gritting on the West Cambridge Site.
There is scope for sharing training between University departments and others on the site. This would help to develop shared standards and a consistent approach and also encourage people to get to know each other.
Notification of spare places on courses could be done via email.
First Aiders from non-university groups are welcome to attend University First Aid meetings.
It was decided that this would not be needed as everyone feels they already have enough contacts from whom to seek advice.
The committee was very pleased to hear that the Safety Office Education Officer is keen to liaise with other institutions about joint training sessions with the University, and noted that this was already done for First Aid sessions. We would like to know if this also covers University Fire Office sessions.
We plan to generate a brief summary of key items from each meeting which we will pass to the Safety Executive Committee, Consultative Committee for Safety and any other group which shows an interest. It will also include a URL of the full minutes.
Monday 7 November at 2pm.
(Next site users meeting – 16 November)
07/06/05