Agenda and minutes

Any Member who is substituting for another Member should so indicate together with the name of the relevant absent Member.

No substitutions were declared.

Apologies were received from Councillor Patrick Chung (St Edmundsbury Borough Council).

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2014 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2014, were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members’ declarations of interest are recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.

To receive and note the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Health and Safety Group held on 2 September 2014.

The Joint Panel received and noted Paper F167 (previously circulated) which incorporated the minutes of the Joint Health and Safety Group meeting held on 2 September 2014.

The Joint Panel received and noted Report F168 (previously circulated) which included, at Appendix A, statistics relating to incidents involving employees and incidents involving members of the public from 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2014 for both Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Appendix A contained, where available, comparative data for the previous two financial years.

The Health and Safety manager drew relevant issues to the attention of the Joint Panel, including providing details on the type and location of incidents/accidents experienced by employees and members of the public during the reporting period. Figures for absence due to stress and depression had reduced from those reported for the year 2012-2013.

The Joint Panel considered the report and asked a number of questions to which responses were provided.

The Health and Safety Manager will provide an oral report.

The Health and Safety Manager informed the Joint Panel that an ‘e-learning platform’ was due to be launched across West Suffolk and Anglia Revenues Partnership. This would provide online module training in the following areas: fire safety, display equipment, fire safety, manual handling and risk assessment. The platform would automate reminders to staff and managers.

The Health and Safety Manager will provide an oral report.

A review had recently been carried out to update the Emergency Evacuation Wardens in both West Suffolk House and the District Offices in Mildenhall.  The system needed to take into account that staff worked flexibly across both buildings. West Suffolk House had 17 zones with 3 wardens per zone. The District Offices in Mildenhall had been divided into seven zones. As the Customer Access team on the first floor would have a permanent presence, they would be responsible for three of these zones.  A practice was due to take place in the coming weeks.

The Health and Safety Manager will provide an oral report.

The Health and Safety Manager reported that over 170 tests had been undertaken over the past 2 years.  Out of these tests, 11 had been ‘non negative’ for cannabis and 2 for alcohol. In addition four agency workers had ‘non-negative’ results and one agency worker had refused to take the test and therefore had not been taken on.

The Health and Safety Manager outlined arrangements to be made for the management of this event which was to be held between Thursday 17 and Sunday 30 November 2014.

Park and Ride would again be provided at Claas at Saxham throughout the four days, Park and Walk facilities would also be provided at Olding Road and West Suffolk College during the weekend and visitors could arrive by train and walk to the event.

The Joint Panel reviewed a map which detailed the designated zones, the two emergency rendezvous points and gave the locations for the CCTV cameras and first aid points, as well as the CCTV cameras. High risk areas for crowd management had also been identified and the Health and Safety Manager explained the process by which staff would estimate the crowd and assess the level using a traffic light system. Although the numbers attending in 2013 had increased, the crowd level had never exceeded Green; this could be due to the additional opening on Thursday evening. Hotspots would be constantly monitored by staff and at certain trigger levels, procedures such as using barriers to provide a one way system would be implemented.

There would be a firework display on Thursday evening at the bottom of Abbey Gardens but it was not anticipated that this would cause any problems with crowds.

A recent meeting with the Chief Inspector of Police had recently taken place where the Safety Plan had been scrutinised. Although the UK Threat Level was severe, it was considered that the threat for this particular event would be low.

The Health and Safety Manager will provide an oral report.

The Health and Safety Manager gave a verbal update to the Joint Panel.

The Panel has already approved the following dates for future meetings:

Monday 16 February 2015 at 4.00pm at Forest Heath District Council offices; and

Monday 15 June 2015 at 2.00pm at West Suffolk House.

An alternative venue may be agreed as the date of the meeting approaches.

The Joint Panel agreed the following dates of future meetings:

·         Monday 16 February 2015 at 4.00pm at Forest Heath District Council offices

·         Monday 15 June 2015 at 2.00pm at West Suffolk House