Safe and sound

Keeping the children safe
This remediation project is all about removing a danger to local children and improving the environment for everyone. We do recognise, however, that the activity from diggers and dump trucks during the works may make the fenced site even more attractive to children. Please can we ask parents and others in the community to help us to keep the children safe by explaining the dangers on the site. The main things to bear in mind are:

• The shale slopes inside the fence are very steep and it is easy to fall, slip or trip.
• The tar lagoons are very soft and deep and, though they may look solid on the surface, the crust may not support a person’s weight.
• If you fall into a tar lagoon, as with quicksand, the more you struggle to escape, the more you will sink.
• Some of these tar lagoons are covered with water and paddling or swimming could be very dangerous (not to mention smelly!).
• Drivers of the large machinery may fail to see a person who is not wearing high visibility clothing and not trained in site safety.

Keeping our workers safe
On a lighter note, our site team is pondering how best to deal with a somewhat unusual threat to their safety. While clearing the vegetation on site, it quickly became apparent that some of the players at Grassmoor Golf Club may not always be as accurate as they would like, and the fenced site has a liberal sprinkling of golf balls. No doubt the golfers will be shouting ‘fore’ but, with trees surrounding the site, it is unlikely that a stray ball will be seen before impact!