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Health and Safety another useless quango?


wahl

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I note that WBC have been fined ?5000 with lawyers getting almost the same in costs for an incident at Gt Sankey High .

 

 

Where is the common sense in the actions of the H&S people? Everyone knows that there was an accident, but why prosecute?

What good does it do for anyone apart from the money grabbing solicitors ? .

What do they do with the "fine"? Who gets the money that is taken from the counciltax payers of Warrington?

Why do solicitors etc get costs?

Seems like another rip off left over from liebor.

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H&S is there for the safety of workers, which means they should not operate in an unsafe enviroment. This now means that firefighters will stand back and watch buildings burn down rather than their managers risking prosecution; and perhaps they'll apply it to the Army which would mean no more wars?! :wink:

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I think that there should have been a prosecution but I don't think that imposing fines that the council tax payer has to fork out for is the correct penalty to enforce. The person/s responsible should have been sacked/fined/jailed whatever.

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I agree too and whilst obviously it is worrying that an explosion can happen in a chemisty class injuring both pupils and teachers why should the tax payer fork out and pay the fine ?

 

I for one can't understand why

 

1. Why the council admitted liability and agreed to pay out nearly ?10k last month

 

2. then why the seperate case against the teacher who was actually in charge of the lesson at the time was then dropped this week.

 

3. Was the head of the school inline for prosecution too as surely they should keep an eye on what is going on in their school?

 

Surely the teachers has only been dropped because the council took the blame last month or was there another reason why her's was dropped.

 

Accident's happen and what's the saying... where there's blame there's a claim.... and as long as someone takes responsibility and coughs up.... case closed :?

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I think that there should have been a prosecution but I don't think that imposing fines that the council tax payer has to fork out for is the correct penalty to enforce. The person/s responsible should have been sacked/fined/jailed whatever.

 

If WBC pleaded guilty to contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act then fining them is appropriate.

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Not knowing what went on i can only comment on what i have read here.

 

There was an explosion in the chemistry lab and somebody was injured and made a claim against the school.

 

Question 1) How big was the explosion?

 

Are we talking windows missing and doors flying across the corridors or was it the sort of pop "oh that shouldn't have happened" sort with a bit of material spitting out and a cloud of smoke.

 

Question 2) How bad was the injury?

 

Was it life threatening, limbs or organs missing or was it "oh dear well just was it under the tap and put a plaster on it" type.

 

I well remember the chemistry teacher at Botelor being famous for blowing up the chemistry lab on a regular basis. Usually this involved immersing "small" quantities of sodium in a "large" bath of water to watch is fizz and splutter around smoking as it did so. Only trouble is if he used a slightly to large a piece it would then ignite and explode spraying water and smoking particles of sodium around the area. Looked very spectacular to see a small mushroom cloud with smoking bits spiralling out of it inside a room full of eager kids who were usually crowding around the basin to get a good look. Nobody ever worried about what the consequences of an injury were, any one who did get a slight burn were sent to the school nurse to have it looked at and maybe a plaster applied before heading back to see what would go bang next. :lol::lol::lol::shock::?

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Ahh yes the very same man.

 

Whenever I watch brainiac and see that guy in the shed blowing things up it always reminds me of him.

 

Cannot remember if it was him that had the exploding cocoa tin or not. I may be getting him mixed up with the physics teacher at the time.

 

The experiment was to show how explosive gas could be. He had a cocoa tin that had a press on lid. The bottom had a tube going to the gas supply and the press in top had a small hole in it. He would press the lid in and then turn on the gas and light it so that there was a flame coming out of the top. he would then turn the gas off at the supply and wait. the flame would slowly burn lower until the air gas mixture reached a certain point then with a bang the lid would be blown off into the air. Always a highlight to the watching class.

 

He used to demonstrate this several times to show that it was not a trick. The third time he did this with our class the lid did not blow off as he had put it in too tight which resulted in the cardboard cocoa tin being shredded as the side blew out. :oops:

 

But the thing is the only people that ever wore PEPS (Personal Eye Protectors) in those days were the ones who had to wear glasses to see. :shock:8) None of this elf and safety nonsense then.

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We used to do something similar with paint cans and oxyacetylene cutting torches when I was an apprentice, take an empty paint can and leaving the lid off, turn it upside down on the floor, place the nozzle of the burning torch under the can and fill it with acetylene gas, remove the nozzle from under the can, light the torch and apply the flame to the bottom of the can, the gas in the can ignited and shot the can 20 to 30 ft in the air with a loud bang. Hee, hee!, naughty but happy days. :lol::wink:

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Sid.

 

the funniest Fud moment I remember was in the chemistry lab. We were all sat at the front watching one of his experiments and lots of lads were sat on the benches with their feet on the big heavy wooden stools in front of them...... Fud had tied about 5 of the lighters together and was just about to ignite something or other when one of the lads kicked the stool over onto the hard wooden floor......."BANG" went the stool, and Fud jumped about 10 feet in the air.

 

Oh how we laughed!! :lol:

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That was when you knew what danger was and took calculated risks.

 

AND you could play conkers. :wink:

I remember when (bet everyone cringes when I start of like this) :oops: when Health & safety reared it's ugly head, i was a working as a maintenance superintendant (sounds posher than saying - foreman on the Chlorine compression & liquefactionat section ICI Runcorn where we had had a very good accident & incident record for the previous 5 yrs, the year that Health & safety was introduced to the site we had more accidents & dangerous occurrences than we had experienced in that previous 5 year period, the reason being where everyone had previously looked out for themselves they then expected the system to look after them and we never did achieve good safety records again.

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I have always thought that the widespread introduction of CRB checks for those even remotely connected with children has stopped the common sense reaction. The majority of adults are no threat to children and most can use their inbuilt instinct about people where children are concerned. There are always the few who will slip through the net, but it would be interesting to know how many people who are a genuine risk to children have been prevented from working with, or being responsible for them since these checks were introduced.

 

We only seem to hear about the ones who should have been kept away from children by the authorities but weren't, with devastating consequences.

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I have an enhanced CRB check for my job. Applied and it took three weeks. Some I know who have applied at the same time are still waiting. (By the way I am safe to have around kids providing they don't mind the odd silly joke or clip round the ear.) 8):lol:

 

Me and my lads all have enhanced CRB checks too and although most came back within two to three weeks, one lad was waiting for two months and it was down to the Police delaying their response for no valid reason....

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