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A LEADING North-East scaffolding provider has reaffirmed its continual dedication to safety.
Hexham Scaffolding, based in Hexham, is keen to show just how seriously it considers the health and safety of its employees, customers and the public.
Proprietor, Edward Stewart, said: “Many people consider health and safety to be quite dull, but when you’re regularly working dozens, or even hundreds, of feet above or below the ground, it’s something you can’t afford to forget about even for a second.
Hexham Scaffolding have worked on hundreds of sites since Mr Stewart founded the business in 2013, constructing scaffolding for everything from bungalows to church spires.
“Our team, and the people using our scaffolding, work in hazardous conditions every day, so their safety is a paramount concern. Every member of the team has a minimum of five points of personal protection on them at all times: hi-visibility clothing, a hard hat, protective boots, gloves, and glasses, in addition to specialist working-at-height equipment.
“Each team carries radios and remain in touch with each other and me, and has extra supplies, like waterproof boots, disposable coveralls and antibacterial wipes, just in case the site requires extra caution.”
Mr Stewart, an engineer by trade, founded the business in 2013. Although he hadn’t previously worked in the industry, he had purchased some scaffolding to help family. After the job was done, he saw a future in the trade.
He said: “We do around four jobs a day, so there’s always the possibility that something will happen, no matter the lengths we go to prevent it – sometimes fate is just against you.”
“If - despite our best efforts - an incident occurs, everyone is trained in how to recover a suspended team mate as well as first aid.
“The crew are encouraged and actively report any and all incidents, however small, so we can all learn, assess the cause, and put procedures and systems in place to ensure it can’t happen again.”
Having also trained as a scaffolder himself, Mr Stewart knows what conditions his team can expect to face.
He added: “We’re continually committed to the highest possible safety standards. Our perspective is that our staff are vulnerable on site and are valuable to us, so we ensure that no job goes ahead until all statutory and internally assessed safety criteria are met.”
Tel: 01434 600 247
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