Waste contractor recognised for health and safety excellence

The Forest of Dean District Council’s waste contractor Biffa Cinderford has twice been recognised for its continued excellence in health and safety at an in-house awards ceremony held last month. The awards are presented annually by Biffa to honour the good work that is taking place across its national depots and sites and staff to prevent accidents and improve the safety of others.

A previous winner of Depot of the Year in 2005, Cinderford received the Health and Safety Achievement Award for Housekeeping while compliance officer, Simon Davis, received the Individual Award. The awards were presented on 13 October at Ardencote Manor in Warwick by divisional inspector of the Health and Safety Executive, Robert Mearton.

‘We are obviously delighted to have been recognised again,’ said Martin Jones, depot manager at Cinderford. ‘The waste industry remains one of the most dangerous in which to work and as such the safety of our crews and the public is our number one priority. We are proud that the number of days lost to accident and our number of RIDDOR incidents are one of the lowest for any Biffa depot yet given the environment in which we work we know we cannot afford to be complacent. ‘

He continues ‘I would like to congratulate Simon on his achievement. Since joining the company in January 2007, he has trained as a NVQ assessor and is now training loaders to achieve WAMITAB NVQ Level 2 in waste management operations. We anticipate that by the end of the year all Cinderford crews will have completed the training. He has also been instrumental in setting up robust internal audit procedures to allow the depot to achieve industry ISO9001 and OHSAS 18001 external accreditation and is now sharing his experience with other Biffa depots in Stafford, North Somerset, Wirral and Penzance to do the same. ‘

Cllr Martin Quaile, portfolio holder for the environment at the district council, adds his support: ‘A great deal of time is taken to ensure that the crews work in the safest environment possible and it is excellent news that Biffa Cinderford has once again been acknowledged for their hard work and commitment. Both awards are thoroughly well deserved.’